


Plus Two

by tinfoiljones



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Babies, M/M, Mpreg, Series Rewrite, Teen Pregnancy, Teen parent, Violetshipping, one-night stand gone wrong, social stigma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:20:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 35,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26235523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinfoiljones/pseuds/tinfoiljones
Summary: "Aw how cute! Are these your little siblings?""..."
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Comments: 56
Kudos: 188
Collections: Fics That Should Be Adored and Loved





	1. Don't Drink Underaged

**Author's Note:**

> This is me just testing the waters for this series idea. I've already rewritten the Duelist Kingdom Arc, I just wanted to see how readers would feel about the project in general first. For now, this is a one-shot. 
> 
> The full summary is; 
> 
> An AU in which Jonouchi struggles with teen parenthood, and destiny intertwined with card games. Oh, and trying to hide his kids parentage from everyone, ESPECIALLY Kaiba.
> 
> Warnings: MPREG, Homosexual relationships, vulgar words and adult situations.
> 
> Beta reader: Sky-Kaijou

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Aw how cute! Are these your little siblings?"
> 
> "..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: MPREG, Homosexual relationships, vulgar words and adult situations.
> 
> Author's Note: This will be slow to update because I need to actually rewatch episodes to write most chapters. This is part anthology and part series rewrite. Beta reader: Sky-Kaijou
> 
> This is me just testing the waters for this series idea. I've already rewritten the Duelist Kingdom Arc, I just wanted to see how readers would feel about the project in general first. For now, this is a one-shot.

**Chapter 1: Don't Drink Underaged**

He had only been fifteen when it happened.

_The end of middle school was rapidly approaching, and Katsuya knew this would be the last he would see of most of his middle school friends. To get away from his gang-affiliated past, and ensure he would actually go to and finish high school his dad was relocating them to a different part of Domino._

_That didn't mean he was going to miss out on the end-of-the-year, goodbye-middle-school party that one of the other 3rd year students were throwing._

_Katsuya had managed to bring a bottle of whisky that he may or may not have bribed a homeless man to buy for him. And he wasn't the only one who had brought alcohol either; most of the other people who came to the party, students and delinquents alike, brought bottles of liquor and cans of Strong Zero._

_Being as young and inexperienced as they were, most of them were lightweights; Katsuya included. His perception of reality was already fuzzy, but he kept going, and by the time he was two cans of Strong Zero, and at least six shots of liquor in, he was fading in and out._

_Most of the faces and voices around him were distorted, and he found himself just nodding along; whether with things people were saying to him, or the music that was playing he wasn't even sure most of the time._

_Even the faces around him seemed smudgy and lacking in detail._

_Except for one…_

_Some kid he didn't recognize, the same age and roughly the same height, but pale and skinny. He was clearly sloshed too, but he was hanging out by himself in some remote corner, swaying slightly as he sat from how inebriated he was. He had lime green hair in a dramatic and clearly recent undercut, and lemon yellow eyes._

_He reminded Katsuya of a bottle of sprite._

_Katsuya tried walking over to the other boy smoothly, but he was definitely stumbling, but he wasn't sober enough to actually care. "Hey there bro," Jonouchi laughed for no reason as he sat too-close to the unknown teen "I haven't seen you around, you new?"_

" _That's my business." The other teen tried to sound serious, but he_ hiccuped _at the end of his statement giving himself away, he didn't seem to mind the blond boy taking up his personal space._

_Now that he was closer he could see why this guy's face stuck out so much; he was really handsome, even for their age. Sure, he had a little bit of acne on his forehead and sides of the neck, but compared to the rest of them he was stunning._

" _You're dressed like a nerd." Katsuya pointed out jovially, tugging slightly at the cream-coloured collar poking out of the guys blue sweater vest "You know this is supposed to be funnnn right?" The green-haired boy tried bumping his shoulder against his, but Katsuya just slung his arms over his shoulder in response "Still cute though." He giggled, his face heating up._

" _Cute?" The boy repeated; his lemon-yellow eyes were hazy and unfocused, but glinted with interest._

" _Kinda adorable, it's a trashy party but you came dressed like a private school kid still..." Katsuya trailed off, practically hanging off of the other boy at this point "I'd prefer if you were wearing less though."_

" _Oh?" The new guys face was now red, and Katsuya laughed again but this time it was because the kid reminded him of a sprite cranberry with the crazy combination of colors._

His memory began cutting off at that point… but he could remember some of the events that followed, enough to know for sure that he'd definitely had a drunken one-night-stand with some random guy he met at a trashy party.

_For a while they were just kissing in the back, and it went past kisses pretty quickly with tongue getting involved, hands sliding under clothing, and even some necking here and there._

_At some point one of the actual occupants of the shitty apartment complained about their PDA and practically kicked out._

_He didn't remember how they got there, but they were in the backseat of some car, a really big car, and the guy said it was his car and Katsuya wasn't in the mental state to question it._

_They were struggling to get their clothes off with how sloppy and uncoordinated they were from the booze._

"' _Swats yer name?"_

" _Seto."_

_He chuckled against the pale neck he was covering in marks "Like the s-sea?"_

_And… then…_

_Condoms didn't cross either of their minds._

* * *

He must have blacked out because the next thing he knew was that he woke up in his room; his window was wide open, meaning he had snuck inside so his dad wouldn't know. He wasn't feeling great, and he wasn't looking great either; he was missing his belt and Letterman jacket, instead wearing some geeky sweater vest over his now very creased shirt, his hair was a mess, and when he consulted the mirror he saw that his neck, shoulders, collarbone and even chest were covered in deep purple marks.

Not the mention the scratches on his back, the embedded nail marks on his hips, and the pain in his head and ass.

Now, Katsuya was no stranger to sex, and he had 'explored' with girls and other guys before, but before that he'd never actually gone all the way with another male. With a stranger no less!

"At least he was hot..." Katsuya had muttered to himself; most of the night before was a blur, but he did have the guys face embedded in his memory. What was his name again though? Set? Seth? Something that was rare…

The next few weeks were uneventful except for him and his father moving out of the slums and into a slightly less slummy apartment building in a slightly less slummy part of Domino City.

The break between middle school and the first year of Domino High school went by uneventfully as well; he re-met his old elementary school friend, Hiroto Honda, who had gone to a different middle school these past three years.

They also started picking on this wimpy kid named Yugi; Katsuya didn't personally have a problem with Yugi, but he was such an easy target he couldn't resist. The kid had no friends besides this one girl named Anzu, and he spent all of his free time messing with some puzzle.

It wasn't too long after the school year started, three months after the party, that Jonouchi started to realize something wasn't right.

At first, it was slight things, things that were easy to blame on other things.

Headaches and lower back pain, he thought he'd just slept wrong or had growing pains. Fatigue, well he wasn't the greatest at staying awake in class already. The constant urge to piss was annoying, but he didn't think too much of it.

Then, things didn't taste right.

Before, Katsuya would eat anything put in front of him - he was poor, and a growing teenage boy, it was expected. Then, one otherwise insignificant day, he was eating some miso soup that had come with his school lunch, and it didn't taste right. It didn't taste _bad,_ but it didn't taste like it should have. He figured it was just because it was school lunch, or it was a bad batch.

It didn't stop there - it didn't matter what he ate, none of it tasted right to him anymore. He still ate, because he literally couldn't afford to be choosey, but eating became almost a chore and he started caring more about the mouthfeel of the food rather than the taste itself.

And then, he was pissed off all of the time.

He didn't have the greatest temper, he was well known for being open with his emotions, and getting enraged at any slight or provocation against him, which was mostly due to his time in a gang. All of a sudden, however, he was blowing up at the slightest annoyance, whether real and perceived.

It, like everything else, started out mild and easy to disregard; angrily glaring at people who would tap their fingers or pens against their desk, berating people who chewed loudly, getting more offended than usual at insults, even the playful ones. He found himself walking out of class and situations to collect himself, increasing in frequency.

Honda had, good-naturedly, slapped his back on day and Katsuya _exploded._ Not literally, of course, his entire face suddenly went as red as his vision did at that moment, and he jumped on his friend, yelling at him as he pinned him to the ground, shaking him violently by the collar.

His friend was too confused to really defend himself. And then, out of nowhere after screaming at him for a good minute or two, Katsuya started _crying._ And not the 'manly tear' type crying anyways, the kind of ugly crying you only see from a three-year-old who had thrown a tantrum for a hot minute, and didn't remember what had upset him in the first place anymore.

Shocked, Honda finally managed to fight out of Katsuya's vice grip and struggled to hold him in place "Jonouchi, what is wrong with you?"

Katsuya was still crying hard, his face in his hands in an attempt to hide how red his face was both from rage and embarrassment, and it took him a minute to gain the self-control to say words again "I-I don't know!" He admitted, everything he had bottled up from that point finally coming out in a violet burst.

Honda dragged him to the school nurse, and although he was still upset Katsuya managed to tell the nurse what had been going on for about a month at that point; back pain to the point of having a hard time moving his neck, headaches, fatigue, sensory problems with light, sound, and taste, muscle aches. Some symptoms he left out because he didn't think it had much to do what was wrong with him.

The nurse took his vitals and examined him a bit; his temperature was elevated and he had a strange rash around his chest and neck. Coupled with his other symptoms, the nurse was worried he had come down with meningitis and immediately sent him to the hospital.

Honda split from him at the hospital, promising to bring him the missed coursework the day and to call his father later; Katsuya didn't want to bother his dad while he was still at work.

He was there for hours, getting poked and prodded for blood and urine tests. The worst one was the 'spinal tap' which sounded tame at first, until you realized it was a giant fucking needle in the spine, and it wasn't quick either. He had to be practically restrained for that one by several adult medical personnel.

He'd fallen asleep in the patient holding chair by the time the doctor came, and the woman had a peculiar look on her face. The type of face you can't describe, just know that it's the face of someone who's about to tell you something you really don't want to hear.

He tested negative for meningitis, but some of his other tests tested positive for _something else_ and they needed to do an ultrasound of his abdomen. Katsuya was confused, but he was too alarmed to question it.

He was made to drink something strange and take off is shirt, a gel was put on his abdomen, and they started to slide the probe on top of the slicked surface; he watched the grainy black-and-white footage on the CPU as they worked.

"Do you know what this is?" The technician asked, then pointed to a dark space that had two pale jelly bean shaped things that were just barely separated by a barrier.

"Isn't that the kidneys?" He had stupidly asked, not realizing at the time that kidneys weren't supposed to move.

"Usually a blood test is enough evidence in combination with a urine test, but it's trickier with men and we need to go a step further…" The female doctor mumbled, seemingly struggling to tell him something.

"What's wrong?" Katsuya asked, now _really_ scared. Were his kidneys damaged? Cancer?

"You're pregnant."

"-..."

"With twins. About 15 weeks, and it looks like you're having-"

He already fainted before the doctor could finish rambling the gender to him.

* * *

His dad didn't take it well of course when the doctor told him, he didn't even talk to his son at first and they rode back to their apartment in utter silence.

It was the most anxiety riddled car ride Katsuya had ever been a part of, and he was in the back seat of a drive-by once.

Once they were home though, all hell broke loose.

The older Jonouchi was yelling and screaming loud enough their entire floor and maybe the floors adjacent to them could hear him. He was yelling so much his son wondered if he was even breathing enough, his face turned red and he knocked over a lamp at some point.

Katsuya had no choice but to just sit there on the couch, watching his father march around the living room, hearing over and over again about how stupid and irresponsible he was, how poor they were, and how he was supposed to be _better than this-_

And then his dad just started to cry, and it shocked Katsuya to the core. He hadn't seen his father cry since he was divorced by his mother, and even then he'd only seen a few glimpses of his father trying to hide his despair in his room, late at night and not realizing his son was watching.

"God damn it boy, I tried so hard with you. I tried so hard." The older man said, holding his own head "Your mother was so sure you were just going to be a dead beat because of me and-"

"Dad." Katsuya said weakly, close to tears himself.

"We were doing so good since we moved and now- and… Katsuya, I was impressed, I was _happy,_ you weren't getting in trouble and you didn't have to work to support us." His tone was sad and bitter, remembering that period where his son had to work side-by-side with him just to keep the bills paid "I thought you were on the right track, but now, Katsuya your life is wrecked and it's my fault for not being a good father to you."

The younger Jonouchi was shocked - he was sure his father was going to be upset with _him,_ not with _himself._ Guilt exploded in his chest; his father was really blaming himself when it had been Katsuya who stupidly went to some dumb party. "Dad, no." Katsuya croaked and forced himself onto shaky legs to get up and embrace his father; they hadn't hugged in years, and both of them were shaking. "I'm not wrecked dad." Katsuya stated, even though he didn't fully understand what he was saying, the gravity of his situation just barely falling on him. "I won't be a dead beat, I-I promise..."

"We can barely afford ourselves, Katsuya." His father said as they separated, he was now holding his sons shoulders firmly, and looking down at him with a much more placid, but still devastated, look in his eyes.

"I-I know..." Katsuya admitted, tears welling in his eyes .

Silence.

Tears were running down Katsuya's face in a rapid stream "I-I'm so sorry dad… I'm s-so..."

He couldn't finish his sentence because he started sobbing.

* * *

Katsuya didn't go to school for the rest of the week as he and his father tried to figure their situation out.

The question of abortion wasn't outright asked, but it was hanging in the air, and Katsuya thought about it seriously. Before all of this he never thought seriously about abortion, he never cared if anyone did or didn't get one; but when it was him, his future, and his health on the line he found himself conflicted.

At the end of the day, he just… Couldn't.

Things were beginning to look up when his father applied for a slightly better paying job, and had even gotten a call about it. Katsuya qualified for government assistance for single parents that would be available once his _children_ were born.

He tried not to think about how he wasn't having a singular child. Or really that he was having a child at all.

His dad told him he would go back to school to finish his first term, but starting summer vacation he would be put on home study and cram school to accommodate for his pregnancy. He might be able to return for the final term of the year, but he was most likely wasn't going to re-attend Domino High School until his second year.

While the delinquent in Katsuya should have revelled in not going to school, he knew his father was no pushover when it came to education, and this home study and cram school type of schooling was going to be _way worse_ than anything Domino High could throw at him.

He didn't tell Honda when he did come back to school, he just told him he wasn't going to come to school anymore for a while. Of course the brunet demanded answers, but Katsuya didn't have the guts to come clean, just saying it was because of his health.

Honda backed off, probably assuming the worst.

The last few days at school ticked by and Katsuya found himself getting increasingly paranoid; would anyone find out? Could anyone even notice? Would they see his symptoms and link it to pregnancy? Would his stomach suddenly grow overnight?

Speaking of his stomach, he abdomen had stayed relatively flat, and even had a nice six pack on top of it (which was probably why he didn't notice any growth) but he swore it started swelling the moment he stepped back on school grounds and continued to swell with each proceeding step.

It was the day before summer break - the last day Katsuya would be in Domino High as a first year student, when he saw Yugi again. Well, he saw Yugi everyday in class, but today was different.

Yugi was kneeling in front of the schools biggest bully, Ushio, and holding his stomach; Jonouchi recognized he had most likely been gut punched. Ushio was mocking him and waving a golden triangular abject that Yugi kept trying to grab, one attempt leading Ushio to kick him in the chest.

He didn't know if he suddenly grew a conscience overnight, or if it was his mood swings, or some other third thing, but a wave of righteous indignation overtook him in an instant, and before he could think clearly he charged at Ushio, jumping on the tall teens back.

"What the-" Ushio gasped in surprise as Katsuya got a choke hold on him and squeezed with all of the strength he had available. The bully choked and struggled against his grasp, dropping the object he held; it was a upside-down pyramid on a rope like a pendant - there was a big empty gap on one of the sides, like it was missing a piece.

Yugi grabbed the pendant and scrambled away, and the blond delinquent used that as an opening to let go and jump back onto the floor, rushing back to the now shocked Honda was but still keeping up a defensive posture.

Ushio was clawing at his own throat as he caught his breath, his pupils were constricted and his face was crimson in rage "You little shit!" He spat the duo but he was definitely referring to Katsuya singularly.

"You're fucking crazy man." Honda muttered to his friend, he also took a similar defensive stance but they both knew they didn't stand a chance even together against Ushio.

"Run guys!" They heard Yugi wail as the short teen did a slide tackle under Ushio's legs to slide past him, and ran to his two former bullies. He grabbed both of their arms and started running, and although panicked his former tormenters followed his lead.

They were running for a while, eventually they ended up in the library, somewhere where even Ushio wouldn't try to start anything.

"Hey thanks for the save back there guys." Yugi said to his two classmates, smiling shyly.

"Yeah, uh..." Katsuya trailed off, wondering why he did any of that "I'm… I'm sorry." Oh that's right; guilt.

"Pardon?"

"About uh, Ushio messing with you." Katsuya quickly deflected, and he saw Honda roll his eyes in the corner of his own "What is that thing anyways?" He pointed to the golden pendant Yugi had.

"It's my Millennium Puzzle." Yugi said, an affectionate tone in his voice "It's my prized possession, I've been solving it for the past eight years." He explained. "My grandfather gave it to me as a lucky charm."

"Huh." Honda acknowledged, scratching the back of his head.

"It looks like it's missing a piece though." Katsuya said, looking at the big, obvious hole in the puzzle.

"Yesterday, Ushio took the puzzle box from me… He might have taken the last piece..." Yugi explained.

The sad look and tone of the shorter teen made the center of Katsuya chest twang in sympathy - and he knew exactly what he was going to do.

* * *

"Are you terminal? Are you trying to do good deeds before you die?" Honda said to his friend as he watched the crazy blond wade through hip-deep water in the drainage canal that surrounded the school grounds "Jonouchi, you've been at it for two hours, I don't think it's here."

Katsuya glared up at his friend from below; he was completely saturated in rain water and free floating algae "Shut up." He snapped, looking at the ground through the mostly clear water, searching for any glint of gold or metal "Trust me Honda, I know it's here."

"Why do you think Ushio threw it into the canal instead of the trash?"

"I just know, okay?" He muttered in response, mostly to himself. He recalled an incident in the beginning of the school year where Ushio threw an entire backpack from a mouthy first-year into the canal.

A cloud from above drifted past the sun, and once it cleared up there was bright enough light that from five feet away he saw exactly what he was looking for - a yellow flash.

* * *

"How did you even find me here?" Yugi asked, flabbergasted, as he stared at the puzzle piece Katsuya had just plopped into his hands after showing up randomly at his grandfather's game shop.

Katsuya shrugged, but his far too honest friend Honda sheepishly grinned and answered for both of them "We mayyyy have harassed Anzu about it."

Katsuya sighed "It took a while to convince her that we didn't have bad intentions."

The tri-haired teen dropped the puzzle piece into his pocket and beamed up at his classmates "You know… you're really kind, Jonouchi."

"I think you should be saving your compliments for someone who deserves them." Katuysa told him solemnly, remembering all of the times he antagonized the innocent teen.

"You've been cruel before, yes," Yugi agreed "but anyone can change. And I think you're on your way."

"I..." Katsuya trailed off at first, and then quickly turned away so neither Honda nor Yugi would see how flustered he was "Well uh, it was good seeing you Yugi byyyyee!" He said dramatically as he practically ran out. He wasn't sure how, but he lost his shoe, and along the way because Yugi started running after him trying to give him the shoe back as he fled.

* * *

For the following months, he stayed mostly at home; he studied mostly on his own while his father was at work, and would go to cram school when his father returned from work at 5pm. It would have driven him mad, but he stayed in contact over chatroom and text message with Honda and recently even Yugi. The tri-haired teen was always raving about some competitive card game called Duel Monsters, and admittedly it was interesting but Katsuya had no time for it for now.

It seemed the moment he was made aware of his pregnancy, the pregnancy made itself more obvious; not only did his back pain and fatigue get twice as worse, but his abdomen didn't just swell, but it swelled basically overnight. It was a small bump all things considered, but with how naturally lithe he was it was easy to notice and he had to hide it behind very baggy shirts.

By the time he was five months in, it became apparent something wasn't right. The fatigue became fainting spells, headaches were splitting, and he couldn't stand up too fast or his vision, hearing, and sense of balance would malfunction for several minutes.

Deep down, Katsuya knew it wasn't normal, but being so young and inexperienced, especially with pregnancy and health, he foolishly ignored it.

That was, until his father found him passed out on the bathroom floor, his temple bloodied from where he'd smacked it against the sink from a fainting spell.

He was dragged to the hospital and again, put through a million different tests and questionnaires.

He had a second ultrasound while he was there, and he was reluctant to look at the screen. What if he looked at the footage of what was supposed to be _his children_ and resented them? What if he was instantly attached, but one or both died?

Most of all, he was afraid of reality. He knew he was pregnant, but he'd been treating it like an affliction, like a health issue that he would eventually get over, not a real-life commitment that would lead to the creation of two entirely new people he would be completely responsible for.

The doctor convinced him to look though, and he felt… alright, about it. Not entirely detached, but still not fully understanding the implications of _pregnancy_ because he was just stubborn like that. The twins looked less like jellybeans and little more like _babies_ and it made him feel emotions that he swore no man should feel. She asked him if he already knew the genders, or wanted to know the genders now, and he said no to both.

He didn't want to admit he was actually having kids. Knowing their gender would make them more… real.

And he wasn't ready for that reality yet.

He stayed at the hospital overnight, and the result of the stay was that he was assigned to an obstetrician - a pregnancy doctor. And one that specializes in complicated pregnancies at that; he was diagnosed with critically low blood pressure and iron, which was why he was constantly tired, dizzy, and fainting. He was given special supplements that would help, but he was still high-risk because of his young age, and gender. Male pregnancy was so uncommon very little was understood about it compared to traditional female pregnancy. And the fact it was his first, and he was having more than one made it even more complicated.

By six months in, he could continue home study but he couldn't go to cram school as he was under special instructions to stay at home for his own safety. Plainly, it was hell. If Katsuya was ever to develop a phobia, it would have been claustrophobia because he felt just so _suffocated_ being in the same small apartment day in and day out for months.

It was also around this time that h- _the_ babies started to move more. They'd moved here and there, usually just a kick or shifting around, but that was more of a weekly thing and it was easy to ignore. Suddenly, it was like his abdominal cavity was a fun house 24/7. It was very upsetting; now he really couldn't ignore them no matter how much he wanted to.

One day he had laid down in the afternoon to take a nap, and as soon as he got comfortable the activity in his abdomen went from 0 to 100. He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep, but he couldn't with all the movement. Frustrated, he had started talking to the bump " Stop that," he hissed, but that only seemed to make the two fetuses more determined to make his life hard "come on, can't you do this later?" He looked down at his cloth-covered stomach, and was a little surprised to see shifting under the fabric.

Now morbidly curious, he lifted his shirt and watched as there was protrusions with movement, reminding him of fish that swam underwater and almost but never quite broke the surface tension of the water.

It was… kind of cute. _Really_ weird, and a little gross, but kind of cute.

He was still really tired.

Groaning, he reached down and placed his hand on top of his abdomen where most of the movement was "Please, not right now." He pleaded, feeling ridiculous for doing so.

And… amazingly, it had worked. The movement calmed down for a few moments before halting entirely.

"...Thanks." He muttered, and finally took the nap he desperately needed.

* * *

It ended sooner than he thought it would. He was thirty weeks, or seven months in when his water broke.

He was alone studying when it happened, and it freaked him out a lot. He ended up calling his father sobbing saying he was afraid he'd miscarried, and panicked for almost an hour while his father rushed over and dragged him over to the specialty clinic of the obstetrician he was referred to.

He was still panicking even as they told it was in fact not a miscarriage but premature labor, and he was put under anesthesia since he couldn't give natural birth.

Those three hours he was completely and utterly unconscious were the most peaceful three hours he'd had ever since he found out he was pregnant.

When he woke up, he was lying on a clinic bed with a breathing mask on and a pain in his throat; he later learned it was because people had to have a breathing tube put in when they were put under.

"What..." He groaned as he struggled to gather his bearing.

"Katsuya?" He heard; he looked over to see his father sitting in a chair nearby, seemingly looking over him.

"What happened?" Katsuya asked as he sat up, wincing at the pain in his throat and the feeling of his paper hospital gown catching on the stitches on his abdomen.

"The doctor said that premature birth was very likely, but the babies are fine." He explained, putting his hand on his sons shoulder.

Katsuya swallowed nervously "Are… are they- where are they?" He asked, feeling more anxious; now that they were born, he couldn't pretend they weren't there anymore. If he saw them, he couldn't deny the reality that he was a single father of two when he wasn't even sixteen yet.

"They're still early, so they need to stay in the NICU - do you want me to grab the nurse so you can see them?" He asked.

Katsuya thought for a moment; for a moment, he seriously considered just bolting, as ridiculous as a notion as that was it _did_ cross his mind. "I want to rest first..." ' _I want to think first'_ He told his father; who simply nodded.

"It's a boy, and a girl." The older Jonouchi told him as he sat back down. Katsuya nodded mutely as he folded his arms over his chest "Little Katsuya and Shizuka almost..." He chuckled, sounding equal parts nostalgic and sad.

"Does… mom know?" He dared ask.

His father nodded.

"Does she… hate me more?"

"Your mother could never hate you, Katsuya."

He never believed that.

"She's just worried about you."

That always sounded like an excuse.

* * *

Katsuya had to spend another three days at the clinic for observation - the obstetrician told him that nothing external caused the premature labor, it was just a culmination of the complications. The babies were going to be fine, but they would have to stay at the NICU for a while, they wouldn't be able to leave until they were able to eat, breathe, and stay warm on their own.

Katsuya managed to avoid seeing them for the first 24 hours, but his father saw through his son's stubborn refusal and all but dragged him to the NICU, accompanied by a neonatal nurse.

"I'm scared." Katsuya finally admitted to his father when they finally came into the NICU ward, there were several glass boxes where babies were being held, attached to machines that helped them develop outside of the womb.

"It'll be okay, Katsuya, you'll love them." His father promised with a rare tender tone in his voice, trying to reassure him as he brought him over to a particularly large NICU machine.

Katsuya peered inside, afraid.

The fear flew out of the window and was replaced with something warmer.

They were both the same size; small, all babies were small but they were much smaller, mini babies basically. They were pink and wrinkled, their eyes were closed but looked really bulbous compared to the rest of their body. They had tubes through their mouths, attached to their wrists and on top of their chest, besides being in a diaper one of them had a blue knit beanie cap and the other was pink, likely for gender.

Katsuya was overwhelmed with a flurry of new emotions; pride? Fear? Adoration? Worry? And… "They're..." He whispered, placing a hand on the glass that separated the twins from the outside world, keeping them safe and secure. They were so tiny, helpless, and fragile and all that was keeping them safe was a glass box machine.

"I know, son." His father said, putting an understanding hand on his shoulder. In those three words, Katsuya knew that his father understood all of what he was going through at that moment; he didn't carry either of his children like his son, but he knew exactly what it felt like to be a new father. To see a tiny life you had created in the flesh, and only want to keep it safe.

"They're very sweet." The neonatal nurse said to the Jonouchi's "They're very synced to each other too, they wake up and move together."

"Oh… wow." Katsuya said, keeping his eyes solely on the twins; they were still sleeping, but he could see as the girl moved her wrist so did the boy.

"Would you like to touch them? They can't be picked up yet but they can grasp your finger." She explained. Katsuya looked nervously to the window of the NICU machine.

"I-Is it safe to? Don't I have to put on gloves or wash my hands?" He fretted nervously.

"You're perfectly fine."

It took a minute of voicing more concerns, some quite irrational before the nurse and his father convinced him it was okay.

A sense of wonder took him over as he put his hand inside of the machine; it was really warm, a lot warmer than he thought it would be, which explained the lack of clothes sans the beanies. The two babies were so close together he could put his index finger in the boys left hand and middle into the girls right.

They both grasped his fingers at the same time, and his chest exploded with that same warm, calming feeling. And now he knew what it was.

It was love.

Their bulbous eyelids twitched before flicking open - the boy had brown eyes just like his own. The girl, strangely, had blue eyes. Shouldn't her eyes have been brown or yellow? Maybe they would change as she got older, as with a lot of babies born with blue eyes.

A silly grin filled his face and he looked back down at them "Hey there..." He greeted, awkwardly, but lovingly.

"By the way, do you have names for them?"

"..."

He had, at that point, not thought of names even once.

* * *

Katsuya was on his third and last full day at the hospital, still no closer to coming up with any names other than several scraps of paper covered in names, with every name either unfinished or crossed out, when his father brought him a gift basket.

"Thanks dad." Katsuya told him as he looked through it, seeing a random assortment of baby items, snacks, and for some reason a green jacket and a CD.

"It's from your mother."

"...Oh."

He picked up the CD, looking at it impassively.

"It's a famous band from America; you can still read English, can't you Katsuya?" His father began asking, sensing his son's languor at the mention of his mother "Can you read what the CD says to me?"

The front of the CD case was clear to show the undamaged CD inside; he flipped it over and struggled to read the back because of the unconventional font. " _Guns 'N Roses._ " He said in English, he'd heard of them, very old school band " _Crystal Meth City_ , I think that's the album name." He read off the fourteen song names before looking to the side where the dedications were written " _Lead vocals Axl Rose, Lead Guitar Slash, Rhythm Guitar Izzy Stradlin_."

"Americans have such strange names." His father commented, amused.

Katsuya was thinking.

"Son?"

"Hey dad, how do you think you write 'Axel' in kanji?"

* * *

"You could have at least gone with 'Bara', or 'Baraka' for the girl." His father muttered as Katsuya finally finished up writing the names on the certificates for the twins. "Axel isn't even a real name."

"It is now." Katsuya muttered in annoyance. He wasn't sure why he was going for American English names - his heritage was his mother and her family being from America, but he never cared too much about his heritage up to this point. Maybe it was because getting him a gift basket was the first nice thing his mother had done for him since the divorce? He didn't even know anymore.

He smiled at the names on the certificates when he finished, and knew he had made the right choices of names for them. He'd given them Japanese middle names in case if that was their preference when they got older, but he was going to primarily call them by their first names.

Jonouchi Rose and Jonouchi Axel.

* * *

Katsuya was devastated that he couldn't bring the twins home with him, but was assured that in a week or two they should be ready. He wasn't impressed that he had to resume home study the moment he got back.

Although, with his father gone for most of the day at least he could finally work out again... once he got the stitches out.

He found himself anxiously and excitedly counting the days until he could bring the twins home, and would visit them each night when his father got done with work, for about an hour each time. As underdeveloped they were when they were born, they developed quickly, growing into their skin and gaining size quickly. Although, he found out that both of them had been born with an impressively full head of hair at birth even preterm, making him wonder how he didn't have any heartburn when carrying them. Rose had bright blonde hair, which would probably darken like his own did as she got older, and Axel strangely had brown hair instead of green or blond.

Katsuya guessed he should be happy his son wasn't born with snot-green hair, but it was still weird. Neither of them really looked like the guy he remembered sleeping with… Maybe it would show up in their features as they got older?

He was over the moon after thirteen days they were developed enough to come home with them. There was a definite spring in his step that day when he picked both of them up and carried them to his father's car.

The months that followed were quiet; infants were much easier than older babies, sure they cried sometimes when they needed formula or attention, which he was more than happy to give, but he dreaded when they would get into the stages when they weren't sleeping all day.

They were about two months old when the third term of the school year started, and although it was possible for him to start attending Domino again his father deemed it was better that he wait until the second year started so they could figure out how child care was going to work when Jonouchi attended school and his father worked during day hours.

His father ultimately decided to plead with the school to allow them to make accommodations for Katsuya to bring the babies with him for school, which was an uphill battle.

Katsuya wasn't the best student they had, he was only decent in most of his subjects, not to mention he had a criminal past and was a known bully.

However, he did have some advantages in his favor; for one thing, besides being one of the best gym students, having an affinity for soccer in particular, he was literally their best English student in both written and spoken portions.

And, what really saved him was the appearance of another student - _Kaiba._

The teen head of the Kaiba corporations had accommodation after accommodation because he was a special case, he was allowed to miss as many school days as he wanted as long as he made the coursework required, and was allowed to bring his laptop to school for business reasons instead of solely academic. Katsuya's father pointed out if they made such ridiculous accommodation for one student because he was a billionaire, they should make accommodations for a single parent as well.

It was when third term started that Katsuya's father loosened the proverbial short leash he had on his son - allowing him to hang out with his friends again.

This time is wasn't just Honda, it was also Yugi and Anzu. They made up their own group called the Yugi-tachi, and he hung out with them mostly after school, where Yugi and his grandfather taught him how to properly play duel monsters, and even put together a rudimentary deck for him.

He had been back in the group for a little over a week when the question came up.

"Why were you gone for so long, Jonouchi?" Yugi asked as he shuffled his deck after another game of Duel Monsters where he absolutely destroyed Katsuya.

"Uh..." Katsuya thought for a moment; should he lie? Was there even a point to lying? He was going to bring the twins with him to school anyways for starting second year…

"We thought you were dying or something with how much your dad refused to let us see you." Honda added, as he and Anzu played capsule monster chess together.

"If I tell you guys, will you promise not to freak out?"

"Of course Jonouchi!" Yugi chirped, smiling.

Although his friends kind face was always a reassuring sight, Katsuya still had nerves. "I, well, I had… I got..." He struggled to say, eventually giving up "I'll just show you." He sighed and defeat and got out his phone, pulling up a picture and showing his friends a picture of Axel and Rose asleep on top of his bed.

"Aw!" Yugi cooed, Katsuya was confused as first, even as Anzu and Honda leaned over to see the picture as well.

"You had siblings? I'm happy your dad moved on, but that's no reason to keep you out of school." Honda said; and Katsuya's heart dropped into his stomach as he realized his friends didn't quite understand what he was trying to tell them.

"Actually… they're… Mine." He admitted slowly "They're my kids."

Silence.

Katsuya was scared his friends were going to cast him aside. A teen parent was one thing, but he knew that society had a more disgusted view on men who get pregnant even more.

Until Anzu shouted "JONOUCHI KATSUYA, YOU GOT A GIRL PREGNANT?" And slapped the back of his head.

Believe it or not, he was more relieved than anything that Anzu was angry at him. At least now, his friends thought he'd gotten someone pregnant rather than the other way around.

* * *

He was sixteen by the time the second year started and he was allowed to attend school again. He didn't go alone, though; as the school promised he was allowed to bring Axel and Rose with him, so long as he made sure they weren't too distracting.

Of course, he mainly got two very different reactions;

Disgust and shock, because he was a teen parent. Mostly from adults and the more uptight to-the-books students.

And absolute adoration because of how cute his kids were and how dedicated to them they were, this was mostly from girls.

The one upside to the situation he had was that he was a guy, while men and women alike are quick to judge and look down on a single mother, the straight female population had the tendency to look at a single father and think he's a superhero. Wasn't fair to the single mothers out there, but it worked to his advantage.

Katsuya had to sit in the back, at a desk in the column closest to the window, this was so that no one would look at him or the babies; Anzu, Yugi, and Honda all sat adjacent to him, which was touching in his opinion; it was a small gesture but it meant the world to him.

Axel and Rose were awake, sitting in their twin stroller; he knew they would fall asleep soon because of their young age, but also knew that eventually he'd have to hold and feed them because they couldn't be sitting all day.

They were told their class was full - but there was an empty desk. The teacher explained that the student _Kaiba_ couldn't be there that day because he had an important business meeting.

The entire day was exhausting with him having to get to each class pushing a stroller and trying to avoid the people who constantly wanted to see and coo at his children, which got old really quick, and like clockwork Axel and Rose would always wake up halfway through class and cry at him to feed them their bottles or just hold them, and he struggled trying to pacify them fast enough but he still got dirty looks from his teachers.

* * *

The next day should have been less eventful, and while it was, it was one of the most impactful days of Jonouchi Katsuya's life.

"He wasn't able to attend yesterday, but I would like to introduce you all to our newest and most influential student." The teacher had said at the start of day.

Katsuya saw Anzu roll her eyes from where she was; they all knew this was Kaiba and he technically wasn't even _new,_ he just didn't attend yesterday.

"I'm pleased to introduce you all to Kaiba Seto."

 _Seto?_ Why did that sound familiar?

The billionaire teen walked into the room with precise footsteps. When he turned to face the class and introduce himself, and Katsuya _saw_ his face, realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

_To be continued...?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Note: WELL THAT WAS LONG.
> 
> *Ahem* Oh shit here we go again
> 
> Anyways, yes an MPREG AU. In this one, men and women can both get pregnant and get others pregnant because why not. If you're wondering why male pregnancy isn't usually suspected and treated as weird when it's possible is because much like the real world, the vast majority of relationships are hetero. I imagine homophobia still exists and persecution of men who got pregnant was/is a big thing, so only like 1-2% of men ever get pregnant but I'm not much for world building or lore.
> 
> This fanfiction is rated M, but I did not show the sex scene between Jonouchi and Kaiba because they were fifteen years old when it happened and I do not lewd teenagers even in writing; I used to, but I'm an adult now. Any explicit sex scenes will be between adults or aged up characters only.
> 
> Initially I didn't think that Seto was a real name, just that it was a different pronunciation of the Egyptian name Set, but Seto is in fact a real Japanese name, but it is rare; The sea between the main island (Honshuu) and Shikoku is called the Seto Inland Sea (thanks for that, Sky-Kaijou), hence why Katsuya thought his name was like the sea, and then had a hard time remembering it.
> 
> You may think Jonouchi's symptoms were weird, but believe it or not, easy-to-mistake mild symptoms are more typical than morning sickness. I wanted to show that the morning sickness/nausea/food-avoidance trope you get with most fictional pregnancies isn't the only symptom associated with pregnancy. Not to mention, I just wanted to give Jonouchi symptoms that would easily be associated with something else, therefore easy to disregard.
> 
> When Katsuya was reading the album, the words that were italicized indicated he was speaking English. I don't know if the name Axl/Axel can exist in Kanji, I don't know how Kanji works. Let's pretend it can. Although, according to my Beta Reader the closest for Axel is アクセル
> 
> Rose's name is pronounced the English way here, but Jonouchi senior is upset that Katsuya didn't go with the close Japanese equivalences - Bara 薔薇 (bara) meaning "rose". Or Baraka: From 薔薇 (bara) meaning "rose" combined with 花 (ka) meaning "flower, blossom". At least, that's what the website "behindthename" tells me, again I don't know Japanese and I apologize for inconsistencies.
> 
> The twins DO have Japanese middle names, in case if they don't want to go by their hard-to-pronounce English names when they're older; but the names won't be revealed quite yet. All I can say is that they follow a similar theme to their English names.
> 
> This chapter was difficult because I tried to be as true to the Japanese Three term system as possible so the timeline of this chapter is as follows;
> 
> March - Middle school ends, Katsuya goes to the Party.
> 
> April - First term in high school starts, Katsuya is reintroduced to Honda, and meets Yugi.
> 
> Late July - First term ends, summer break starts. Katsuya starts home study/cram school, he is about four months pregnant.
> 
> Late August/Early September - Summer break ends, second term starts. Katsuya is still doing home study and cram school.
> 
> 25 October - Seto Kaiba turns 16
> 
> 25 November - Axel and Rose are born prematurely at 30 weeks/7 months.
> 
> Early-Mid December - The twins come home after their NICU stay. Katsuya resumes home study.
> 
> Late December - Second term ends, winter break starts. Katsuya resumes cram school in combination with home study.
> 
> Early January - Third/Final Semester starts. Katsuya rejoins Yugi's group.
> 
> 25 January - Katsuya turns 16
> 
> Mid-March - Final semester ends.
> 
> April - Second year high school begins, Katsuya re-attends Domino High School. Seto Kaiba starts attending Domino High School.


	2. Don't Make a Bad First Impression

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CH.1 Recap:
> 
> Doctor: Your signature is wrong
> 
> Katsuya: What do you-
> 
> Doctor: Because from now on your name is Katsuya JUNOchi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna post the Duelist Kingdom Arc Tentatively to see how it goes. It's already written, and will update weekly while I see if I can be inspired to write again.

_No._

_No. Way._

Yes way. He was staring at facts right in the face, the facts being Seto Kaiba.

_Seto Kaiba was the guy?!_

Katsuya hoped his face wasn't showing as much shock as he felt inside. There was no denying it; his eyes were blue instead of yellow, and his hair was now brown and the undercut had filled in but the thickness at the top compared to the sides indicated there had been one in the past, and he was way taller now even if his lanky build stayed relatively the same. He'd been slightly shorter than Katsuya when they first 'met' but he must have hit a growth spurt in the past year because he was at least 180 cm now.

As if to confirm it, he slowly looked down to the double stroller; Axel was asleep now, but Rose was still awake and just lazily sucking on her pacifier; the blue of her eyes was _exactly the same_ as Kaiba's.

He couldn't believe it.

His staring must have caught Kaiba's attention; because the teen billionaire's gaze focused on his own, as if to challenge him to take a picture. Awkwardly, Jonouchi looked away as Kaiba strode to his own desk, which thankfully was in a different row.

"Are you okay Jonouchi?" He heard Anzu asked him in a hushed tone; he looked back at her and saw the concern written across her face. "You look like you saw a ghost."

"M' fine..." Katsuya waved off her concern "Just uh, Rose gets fussy around this time." He unstrapped and picked up his daughter to make his point. She was limp like a ragdoll in his arms as he held her against his shoulder, and he absentmindedly 'paid attention' to the lecture, hoping to god Kaiba wasn't looking over at them. He continued holding his daughter and rubbing her back even when she finally did fall asleep.

Did Kaiba remember him?

Would he see the twins and connect the dots?

This _should_ be a good thing, after all, now the other parent of his kids was attending the same school when the alternative was him never finding out _who_ it was. _Should_ was really important word, because the guy who had knocked him up wasn't just anybody; he was _Seto freaking Kaiba,_ a billionaire and CEO since the age of 12 who may or may not have killed his own step-father to gain his current position.

A random teen parent he'd never met coming up to him and telling him he was the father of twin babies? That couldn't end well.

If he didn't outright reject such a ridiculous notion, he could just end up disowning his own children because they were born to a poverty-stricken former gangster. If he _did_ accept them, and a strong _if_ there, he had the endless resources at his disposal to take them away from Katsuya, and that was a possibility he wasn't touching with a 5-meter-long pole.

And again, besides drunkenly having a one-night-stand, Kaiba and Katsuya never even met.

Sighing, Katsuya kissed Rose's head, and carefully set her back onto her stroller, adjusting it flat so she lay properly as she slept; he was going to need time to think about this.

* * *

Weeks went by without Katsuya so much as _looking_ at Kaiba so he wouldn't suspect anything. He observed his behavior from a distance to try to see what kind of guy he was beyond the wealth, and the reputation.

So far he was… Quiet, just quiet. Not exactly shy, but he didn't talk to anyone or raise his hand to answer questions during class, he just minded his business. For the first days of class, a bunch of random students had made attempts to suck up to their richest and presumably most handsome student, but he ignored them all. He must have been knowledgeable on most of their class material beforehand, because while he did his assignments in a timely manner, he didn't pay attention to lectures and opted to either read in class or type in his laptop.

Katsuya considered approaching him, but he could never work up the nerve, so he more or less just waited for any type of opening to come up. His number one priority was keeping the twins as far away from their (other) father until the time was right; he was lucky he and Kaiba only shared homeroom together and they didn't sit too close to each other.

However, Axel's uncanny resemblance to Kaiba was problematic; granted, he was still a baby so his features were fluffed out by baby fat, but it would be easy to see as time went on, so Katsuya just took to constantly hiding Axel's brown hair under beanies and knit caps.

That was only a quick fix since summer was going to coming up in a few short months, but he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. Maybe the opening he was waiting for would come up before that.

* * *

The opening came sooner than Katsuya thought it would.

A little over a month and a half had gone by, and class hadn't started yet, but people were still milling about the room. Currently, Katsuya and Yugi were deeply invested into a game of Duel Monsters, and there were being watched by Honda, Anzu and a few other students, including this interesting but quiet guy named Bakura.

Honda was sitting behind Katsuya, watching the game between his two friends while also holding Axel, whom he was currently feeding a bottle too, Anzu similarly had Rose for the same reason. The Yugi-tachi, of course, loved the twins, and said they would always be willing to help him out with them.

Katsuya really needed to get that into writing for when the twins got older and less easy to manage.

Although he tried focusing on the duel, the back of his mind was on their most introverted classmate; Kaiba was in class too, but rather than watch the duel he was more interested in some book he was reading. Katsuya tried not to pay him mind but he really wished he showed interest in some form of socializing so he could better judge his character.

"Hey Jonouchi, Earth to Jonouchi!" Yugi teased from where he was sitting, the same desk but directly across from him, snapping the former gangster from his thoughts "Hey are you in there? It's your turn."

Katsuya hummed slightly as he pretended to be deeper in thought than he really was; he still had the deck-cluttering problem of mostly having monster cards "Hmmm." He thought out loud.

"Aw! Isn't he cute when he's thinking?" He heard Honda coo from behind him, he could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

"You better be talking about the baby." Katsuya warned, briefly looking over his shoulder; Axel was done with the bottle and seemed more interested in drooling right now. If he knew his son well enough, he knew that any second he would-

There was a bubbling hiccup as Axel spit up a bunch of white vomit, which missed the bib entirely and instead dumped onto Honda's pants.

"Aw, man, gross!" Honda exclaimed with a whine; a few of their other classmates laughed at his misfortune while Anzu carefully shifted Rose, trying to get her in a position where if she spit up it wouldn't land on her too.

"That's my boy." Katsuya muttered under his breath, mentally sighing at how much he reminded himself of his own father at that moment, but then spoke up again "Anyways, Yugi's trying to teach me how to play Duel Monsters better."

"Drooling monsters? Because the only drooling monster here is Axel."

"Duel monsters you nimrod, and don't make fun of my baby, or I'll kill you." He warned again, Honda heard the warning edge in his tone and backed off.

"Sheesh." He heard Honda mutter, but cleaned off the vomit with one of the few dozen baby rags Katsuya brought with him on a daily basis.

"Those two have been at it for hours." Anzu commented to Honda, taking a seat at an empty desk; she moved her hand to try to keep Rose's head straight, which was bobbing because she was tired and still couldn't control her head properly. "Jonouchi's starting to get the hang of the game, but Yugi's like an expert."

As Jonouchi went through his turn, Anzu continued to explain the game to Honda, who didn't have the same interest in it that they had.

"Pretty good move, huh Yugi?" Katsuya asked, partially as a taunt but mostly because he was still in his rookie learning phase.

Yugi smiled and nodded; but Katsuya didn't trust those innocent eyes. The twins always had the same super cute and innocent look on their face right before getting some kind of bodily fluid on him, _every time._ "Yup, pretty good move." Yugi affirmed, before grabbing a card from his hand "But not good enough."

He laid down a mid-tier dragon monster down.

Katsuya groaned aloud comparing it's attack to the defense of the monsters he already had on the field "What? Thanks a lot! A card that powerful totally wipes me out."

"Woah, you stink at this game Jonouchi." Honda taunted; with him holding the baby Katsuya could't smack him, so he opted to moodily put his hands behind his head as he sat back instead.

Yugi was a good sport about it, though, "No, you did fine Jonouchi." He reassured "I just have better cards, with my grandpa owning a game shop I get all of my best cards from him."

"Hey, after school do you think your grandpa would be willing to throw a couple of decent ones my way?" Katsuya asked, looking at the abysmal cards in his hand; at 150 yen per booster pack, it wasn't like he was swimming in new, premium cards. Most of his were second-hand bought from people who stopped playing and sold all of their old cards in bulk.

"Okay," Yugi nodded and began packing up his deck "maybe I can even get my grandpa to show us this super rare card he's got."

That did pique Katsuya's interest a bit; if he'd still been paying attention to Kaiba, he might have noticed a sudden change in demeanor.

* * *

With his dad home around the time he got off of school, Katsuya dropped the kids off at home before heading to the game shop with his friends; thankful for the break he got from the twins. He loved them, but the lack of personal time could get frustrating.

Sugoroku was of course happy to see them as they entered; no sign of his daughter-in-law, Yugi's mother, which wasn't surprising since he ran the Game Shop mostly by himself.

"Grandpa, can you show my friends that super rare card you have?" His friend asked, likely wanting to butter his grandfather up before diving into the premise of giveaway cards for Jonouchi.

"Rare card- my special card?" The old man inquired, humming in thought.

"Please, please?" Yugi asked, clasping his hands in front of himself.

Jonouchi, joining in on the buttering, did a respectful bow "Pretty please?"

"Hmm," Sugoroku held his own chin, looking at them with a raised brow, but then chuckled breaking his earlier stern demeanor "How can I refuse?" He reached under the counter and pulled out an old-looking, worn wooden box not dissimilar to something Katsuya's sister might own to hold earrings "You kids are in for a treat, I don't take this card out too often." He explained. "Ready? Here it is."

He picked up a card from the box and showed it to them; an 8-level normal, dragon monster, light blue in colour scheme, with 3000 ATK and 2550 DEF.

"The Blue-Eyes White Dragon," the old man explained "So rare, so powerful, I never let it leave my hands." It _did_ look pretty cool. Was it really that rare?

Honda didn't seem to think so "Doesn't look all that special to me." The brunet said, plucking it from Sugoroku's fingers, who snatched it back on reflex, looking offended at the young man's audacity.

"This card is priceless!" Sugoroku snapped, Katsuya swore he saw angry tears in his eyes "There are only four of them in all the world."

"Speaking of priceless, I'm ready to trade." Katsuya told him; although he was referring to cards in general, he was misunderstood.

"Not for this card!" Sugoroku told him bluntly.

"Huh?" He blinked, then chuckled as he realized the confusion "No, I didn't mean that card." It was cool, but it clearly meant a lot to the old man, and besides if there were only four of them it couldn't be that great "I meant show me some other cool cards to get me started." The old man looked both relieved and excited; because Katsuya wasn't hounding him for the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and he was genuinely interested in learning the game.

There was a loud jingle as the entrance door was pushed open with a lot of force behind it; the entire group turned to see who would enter with such a ruckus. Katsuya's heart skipped a beat at who it was.

"Hello, Can I help you?" Sugoroku greeted, nonplussed.

"If you can't, it certainly wouldn't surprise me." The CEO said; the coldness in his voice shocked pretty much all of them, but for Katsuya it also caused a pit to well up in his stomach.

"Seto Kaiba." Yugi said, recognizing his classmate.

"Kaiba?!" Katsuya's own exclamation overlapped Yugi's.

What was he doing here? Was he a Duelist too? A little unconventional, Katsuya supposed, but this was the _perfect_ opportunity to start dialogue with Kaiba, and try to see what kind of person he was.

"Doesn't he have a big fancy company to run?" Honda pointed out lowly to his friends, scratching his head slightly at the random appearance. "What's he doing down here?"

Although, Kaiba seemed to hear him anyways "Not that it's any of your business," he had a cold grin on his face and the pit in Katsuya's stomach grew even colder because he had the type of tone that practically screams 'beware all those who approach' "but I came to see the card." The card? Did he mean the Blue-Eyes White Dragon? How did he even know about them coming to see it?

Wrenching down the bad feeling in his gut, Katsuya took a few step forwards; an opening was an opening and this would be the first he would directly talk other boy. "Hey, are you into duel monsters too?" He asked, keeping up a friendly disposition. "This is perfect. Maybe we can all duel together, sometimes." Maybe he was overdoing it, but he had to _try_.

"Me? Duel you?" There was a cold smile on the brunets face; and with dread Jonouchi recognized the mocking look on his was very similar to the smile that had been on Hirutani's face before ordering four of his other goons to beat the shit out of him for leaving the gang, back in middle school. "I would have more of a challenge playing solitaire."

"-What?" Anger flashed through Katsuya's brain; his fist shook a bit as he clenched it at his side ' _What a great first impression'_ He thought, he narrowed his eyes at the other teen. Though, he quickly calmed himself down; this was Axel and Rose's (other) father after all, surely he couldn't be all bad.

"I am the number one ranked Duelist in the country, and the favorite to win the Duel Monsters Championship." Kaiba continued to explain, untouched by the momentary aggravation of the other "You wouldn't last two minutes in a duel against me." Champion? Explained the arrogance, but he didn't have to be a dick about it...

"Ooh, I'm shaking." Katsuya retorted; he was really tempted to just take this outside; but no, he shouldn't be getting in fist fights over the tiniest slight against him anymore.

"Now," Kaiba rudely brushed past him, not even bothering to move around him just bumping him out of the way "does this shop have any worthwhile cards or not?" He suddenly stiffened up when he saw Sugoroku putting the Blue Eyes card back into its designated box.

He practically flung himself at the front counter, shoving Yugi to the side in the process; Katsuya grabbed him to cushion the force. "Hey!" He said in unison with Honda.

Kaiba ignored their protests "Can it be? The Blue Eyes White Dragon - in a dump like this?" Katsuya continued to glare at him over the uncalled for insults, one arm still over Yugi.

"Well, enough window shopping." Sugoroku said, somewhat sternly, to Kaiba as he closed up the wooden box and placed it back under the counter "Is there anything else I can help you with?" He definitely sounded annoyed, probably wondering if all the youth these days were as rude as Kaiba.

A sneer twisted itself onto Kaiba's face and Katsuya found himself gritting his teeth a little; had he really once been attracted to such an unsettling face? Kaiba suddenly slammed his metal briefcase down on the counter, making Yugi's grandfather jump back a little. Kaiba paid no mind to how much he startled the old man, clicked the briefcase open and showed him the contents "Listen to me, old man," Kaiba practically barked "give me your Blue Eyes White Dragon card, and I'll trade you all of these."

Sugoroku did seem impressed with the sheer volume of cards, and likely recognized the rarity and value of a lot of the cards he could immediately see "Ah, nice," the older man chuckled, scanning the cards in the briefcase "but no thanks."

"Fine." The brunet seemed a little offended, but tsked anyways "If you won't trade, maybe you'll sell it. Name your price, I can pay anything you ask."

This time, Sugoroku didn't seem so impressed, but he kept a kind tone towards the teen "I'm sure you could," he began gently "but this card is worth more to me than you could ever offer. Not because of its power, or because it's so rare; but because of what it means to me." Ah, so it's value was mostly sentimental; Katsuya could respect that, but Kaiba on the other hand looked confused. "This card was given to me by a dear friend, and so I treasure this card as I do that friend." He picked up the box and looked down on it with fond nostalgia "So parting with it is completely out of the question."

The CEO's confusion turned to rage, something Katsuya could recognize a mile away; the clenched teeth, the shaking fist, the stiff back.

Yugi withdrew from Katsuya to approach his grandfather, and asked "You'd feel the same, even if it were a common card, right, grandpa?"

"Exactly," he affirmed, nodding his head "you see, this precious card has bonded with my heart."

Kaiba, still seething, slammed his briefcase closed "Fine! I've heard enough of your nonsense." He swiftly grabbed the briefcase again and brisk about-faced, marching out, but not before muttering "Senile old fool." Loud enough for others to hear him.

The door jingled again as the door swung closed with his exit; Katsuya's heart pounded in his chest as the pit in his stomach finally settled. He couldn't believe it, he finally got his first impression of Kaiba, but it was one of the worst first impressions he could have asked for.

* * *

"I wonder how such a prick could create such sweet little guys like you," Katsuya said to the babies as he sat on the edge of his bed; Axel and Rose were lying on the top of the center of the bed, awake but not doing much besides drooling and shifting around randomly "I hope he was like that just because he was having a bad day or something..."

It was a really bad first impression. He was not only arrogant, but he was a jerk, he didn't treat any of them with respect, and had the audacity to insult an old man in his own Game Shop. Not to mention, he'd insulted Katsuya to his face unprovoked, and that wasn't something he could brush off so easily.

Of course they didn't answer, Axel just stuck his fist into his mouth while his sister just gurgled where she was.

"Well, neither of you two will grow up to be jerks, will you?" He cooed, feeling quite silly to be talking to literal infants, but he heard somewhere that parents speaking to their babies helped them develop language skills faster, so he was giving them a good start. Grinning, he carefully picked them both up and held them against either shoulder, cuddling them "Yeah, you two will be angels like- well, not like me… Maybe like your aunt Shizuka? Maybe Yugi? Just… don't be like either of your dads, okay…?"

He laid back on his bed, wondering if the way Kaiba acted at the Game Shop was how he always was.

* * *

The next day at school was uneventful; thankfully Kaiba wasn't there, which wasn't unusual, it was probably for some work function as always.

After school they went straight to Yugi's place; Katsuya's dad was working overtime that day, so he couldn't dump the kids on him. And it had to be on the day the twins were feeling fussy, too.

Axel was wailing his head off as soon as school ended for the day, and Katsuya struggled to hold him in an attempt to pacify him while also pushing the stroller because somehow Rose could tell who pushed the stroller and always got upset when anyone else besides him tried pushing it.

"Do you really have to do this now?" Katsuya asked his son, exasperated, as he as his friends walked down the sidewalk that lead to the Game Shop, Axel simply continued to scream in his ear in response. He didn't want a bottle or pacifier, he didn't need to be changed and being held and rocked by his dad wasn't calming him down, which meant only one thing.

He was crying just for the sake of crying, something Katsuya had long since been forced to realize was a _thing_ babies just did sometimes.

"Do you want me to hold him for you, Jonouchi?" Yugi offered sweetly, seeing his friend struggle to push a pram and hold a baby at the same time; Katsuya looked worryingly at the prominent, and very sharp-edged Millennium Puzzle dangling off of Yugi's neck, and right over his chest.

"Uhh..." He trailed off; Anzu noticed what he was staring at and held her arms out instead, and Katsuya automatically handed her the screaming infant.

Axel stopped crying. Anzu grinned "Maybe he likes me better than you, Jonouchi." She said teasingly.

Katsuya eyed how the baby was cuddling right into her boobs "...Whatever you say." He remarked, mostly to himself; Axel was _his_ son alright. He then cleared his throat, put both hands onto the stroller handles, and looked back to Yugi "I hope your grandpa has some cool cards today." He began, changing the subject. After Kaiba's rude interruption yesterday, they didn't have the opportunity to do much deck building - although they did trade some of Katsuya's monster cards for some trap and spell cards to help balance his deck a little bit better.

Yugi nodded, and they continued their walk until they finally came to the shop; oddly, the lights didn't seem to be one.

Katsuya paid no mind "Ok, gramps." He called as he swung the door open and walked in "I'm back to get more cards!" The collective hush fell on the group as they saw that not only were the lights indeed off, but Mr. Mutou was nowhere in sight "Hey, gramps?" He called again.

Yugi was especially confused "Grandpa, I'm home!" He raised his voice a bit as he made his way up to the counter.

"Maybe he went out?" Anzu suggested; she set Axel back into his seat in the stroller, of which he whimpered about for a moment but otherwise stayed calm.

"Maybe, but why would he leave the door unlocked?" Katsuya inquired, looking down and locking eyes with Yugi; the mutual confusion was clear on the shorter teens face.

Suddenly, the phone affixed to the wall started to ring, and Yugi shushed his friend before walking over to answer it. "Hello? Game Shop." Yugi said in his 'customer service' voice. They couldn't hear the voice on the other side, but they saw Yugi's expression fall immediately "Kaiba?!" The exclaimed; the other three teens looked at each other shocked "Kaiba!? What have you done, Kaiba?!"

Anzu approached the teen who was struggling to put the phone back in place. "What did Kaiba have to say, Yugi?"

"He says he has my grandpa!" Yugi explained, panicking.

Katsuya narrowed his eyes, but nervously glanced down at the twins, who were innocently unaware of what was going on "Whatever Kaiba would want with your grandpa… It can't be good."

* * *

They rushed to the Kaiba Corporation building, running as fast as their legs would carry them. Knowing a stroller would slow them down, Katsuya switched to a double-sling to carry the babies so he could carry them and run at the same time; they didn't appreciate all of the motion too much, but didn't cry about it either.

By the time they came to the Duel Monsters arena at the Kaiba Corp building, they saw Sugoroku lying on the ground, appearing weakened.

"Grandpa!" Yugi shouted as he rushed over to his injured grandfather, kneeling over to try to help him "Grandpa, are you okay?" He asked; Anzu, Honda, Katsuya and the twins followed closely behind him.

"Yugi, I failed." Sugoroku told him sadly, looking up from the ground "I wanted to teach that boy Kaiba a lesson about the heart of the cards, but I lost." He then groaned and flopped back down.

"Grandpa-" Yugi repeated, grabbing his shoulders to try to keep him as off of the ground as possible.

A nearby automatic door slid open, revealing a very sinister looking Seto Kaiba standing there, the smuggest look possible engraved on his face "How's the old man feeling, hm?" He asked, not bothering to even feign concern.

"Kaiba!" Katsuya shouted, fists curling as he angrily glared at the CEO; granted with the two babies swaddled to his chest he probably didn't look as intimidating as he meant to "You sleaze, what have you done to him?" He growled, bitterness radiating throughout his entire body, he was willing to let bygones be bygones earlier, but now-

"We had a duel, that's all." Kaiba replied, still grinning coldly, his hands nonchalantly inside of his school uniform pockets "With each of us putting up our most valuable card as the prize, but I guess playing against a champion like myself was just too much stimulation for the old _fool._ " He even chuckled a bit, as if he enjoyed that he had practically beat down an old man.

"Kaiba, you should be ashamed of yourself." Anzu said indignantly, pointing at the CEO accusingly; she had voiced exactly what Katsuya had been thinking but was too angry to voice.

Kaiba shrugged, very nonchalantly "It was fair, and look at the sweet prize I won." He told them smugly, as he removed one of his hands from his pocket to reveal Sugoroku's treasured Blue-Eyes White Dragon card.

Then he, without blinking, tore it in half.

They all gasped in horror, no one sounding more devastated than Sugoroku himself.

"Grandpas most treasured card!" Yugi gasped.

"Yes, the Blue Eyes White Dragon in a rare and powerful card," callously and without regard, Kaiba tossed the two halves of the card to the side as if it were nothing "and this one will never be used against me."

"My Blue Eyes White Dragon," devastated, Sugoroku reached up, as if he could grab the discarded halves of his beloved card and somehow piece it back together whole "my treasure." He rasped, the bitterness in Katsuya's chest grew stronger from watching such a sweet old break down because of Kaiba's cruelty.

As Yugi tried to comfort his grandfather, in which the old man then offered the rest of his deck to him so he could teach Kaiba a lesson instead, Katsuya tuned out somewhat; he looked down to Axel and Rose, both of them were now asleep, curled up against his chest.

They were completely innocent. Sweet and innocent, nothing like their- _no,_ Kaiba would never be their father, not if Katsuya had anything to say about it.

And Katsuya knew from that point on, and swore to his very grave; he would never allow Kaiba to corrupt them. No matter what.

Kaiba wasn't allowed to be their father, he had unknowingly threw his chance away like he had the two halves of Sugoroku's beloved Blue Eyes White Dragon.

_To be continued..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Note: And here the plot really starts. Katsuya sees Kaiba for who he is now, and doesn't want that egomaniac anywhere near his precious babies.
> 
> So I use the 4kids episodes script, even though I use Japanese names, as a guide because I have hulu and not crunchyroll. That and in this house we love the Shadow Realm (the 4kids exclusive cover up for death and hell)
> 
> Other notes:
> 
> Axel is the spitting image of Kaiba: it's so close, it's not even funny. The only difference is his hair texture (being thicker like Jonouchi's own) and his eye colour. Rose is more of mix, but leans closer to Jonouchi. So technically, the twins look more like Kaiba than Jonouchi, which is why their dad is so paranoid about Kaiba looking at them directly.
> 
> Jonouchi isn't so quick to fight because he's a parent now, so he was forced to do a little bit of growing up. That doesn't mean he won't throw hands, just that he will only get violent under very specific circumstances we will soon see.


	3. Don't Smuggle Infants onto a Boat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CH.2 Recap:
> 
> Katsuya before meeting Seto Kaiba: I'd give anything to know who my kids (other) father is.
> 
> Katsuya exactly two minutes after meeting Seto Kaiba: I gave nothing, and this is still the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals, maybe ever.

"I'm sorry guys..." Katsuya said to the sleeping twins as he rested them down on the bed - he couldn't afford a crib, so they just slept with him usually. Both were unaware that he had made a major decision on their behalf, one that would affect their lives from there on. "But it looks like you're going to have to settle for just having me."

It pained him. He knew better than anyone what having only one parent was like, and he never wished that on his own kids, but what choice did he have? Kaiba just showed himself to be a heartless jerk, and was _the last thing_ Axel and Rose needed.

It was better they never knew Kaiba was their (other) father, than know they were fathered by such an asshole.

The night had gone spectacularly; not only had Yugi challenged Kaiba in revenge for what he had done to his grandfather, but he absolutely wiped the floor with what was supposed to be the National Champion of Duel Monsters.

Afterwards, Kaiba had whited out followed by some little kid- his brother maybe? Another biological family the twins would never meet, sadly, but this was for the best. Yugi seemed to do something to him, the loss was shocking, but for Kaiba it seemed to affect him on a deeper level, a level Katsuya didn't think he could understand.

* * *

Kaiba promptly stopped showing up to school. The teacher explained it was for mental health reasons.

 _Good riddance_ , was Katsuya's humble and definitely-not-bitter opinion.

The following days were relatively peaceful, except Katsuya got destroyed by Anzu in duel monsters at least five times in a row, and Yugi had to remind him that having a monsters-only deck was crippling him in the strategic department. He tried asking his friend to teach him how to play better - after all Yugi was now technically the champion because he had beat the official champion of Japan.

However, Yugi explained that he'd probably be better off learning Duel Monsters strategy from Suguroku, who had been the one to teach him in the first place. Katsuya had already been learning from both of them up to that point, but it more advice assistance in deck building, nothing too hands-on. Katsuya agreed, because sometimes Yugi was too nice for his own good.

"Hey, grandpa!" Yugi called as he and Katsuya entered the Gameshop; the man in question was putting up a poster of a Duel Monster card. With Anzu and Honda at a study group, it was just Yugi, Katsuya and the twins; the blonde had allowed Yugi to hold Axel on the stipulation that he put the Puzzle in his backpack, which the little guy didn't seem to mind "I brought you a new student." Yugi said to his grandfather, gesturing to Katsuya.

"Student?" Sugoroku looked up to the two boys as they approached.

"I was hoping, since you know more about Duel Monsters than anyone, maybe you'd teach me?" Katsuya proposed, lightly rocking Rose in his arms.

"Teach you? Duel Monsters is a very complex game." Sugoroku pointed out; Katsuya kept up a smile, but he couldn't help but feel annoyed at someone else making a jab at his intelligence.

"Yeah, tell me about it, Anzu beat me three times in a row."

"Actually, Anzu beat you five times in a row, Jonouchi." Yugi piped up, teasing his friend. Jonouchi lightly bumped his shoulder against his in retaliation.

Sugoroku held his own chin in place as he thought aloud "I could teach you to be a great tournament duelist," he began, looking to the friend of his grandson, before his disposition turned serious "BUT, only if you're willing to spend endless days and sleepless nights filled with rigorous training."

Katsuya grinned at the challenge "Piece of cake."

The youths' lax attitude served only to make the old man even more stern "With an attitude like that," he crossed his arms "teaching you may not be worth my effort."

"Nice going, smart mouth." Yugi said, laughing slightly; Axel gurgled seemingly in agreement at his dads' misfortune.

"Gramps," Katsuya sighed "please, I will work hard, okay? I promise. It's just… I have two kids, I already haven't slept in six months." He laughed nervously; clearly he was exaggerating, but the sad part is only by a little bit.

"Hmm." Sugoroku came up to Yugi and bent down a little to get a better look at Axel, who was busying himself making a spit bubble "I know you can dedicate yourself to things you deem important - your babies are the biggest proof of your work ethic. I suppose it's not impossible."

"You mean it, gramps?" Katsuya asked; his heart sang a bit from the rare praise, because not a lot of people _especially_ from his peer group realized just how much work school and raising babies was.

"I never said I _couldn't_ teach you." Sugoroku countered, serious disposition returning "But if I agree, you _must_ work hard."

"I'll do anything. I promise, I promise." Katsuya pleaded, rubbing the back of Rose's head when she started to murmur babyishly against his chest.

With pride, Sugoroku put his hands on his hips "Hm. Fine, then we'll begin your instruction immediately, my young friend. And believe me, under my tutelage, you will learn."

"Gramps as long as you aren't trying to puke on me, we'll be just fine." Katsuya mumbled, mostly to himself; Yugi chuckled at the joke but Sugoroku's old ears didn't seem to catch that.

"Now, can you name the most powerful duel monster?"

"Ehhh." Katsuya totally blanked "No?"

"Can you name the weakest?"

"No."

"You do know what a trap card is, don't you?"

" _Kinda._ "

What an excellent start.

* * *

Sugoroku Motou kept his promises, Katsuya could give him that; he wasn't kidding about running him ragged. At some points, Katsuya really wondered if it was all worth it, but then the pep talks would quickly squash those thoughts. Duel Monsters was a weird game even if it was popular… but it really fired Katsuya up in a way nothing had before, after all of his trouble with gangs, drugs and the law he didn't think he'd could be excited by something seemingly so childish.

He wasn't too great at most things, but maybe if he could be an excellent Duelist, maybe he could be something his family could be proud of. Something his sister, Axel, and Rose could look up to.

So for weeks, he trained on with Sugoroku after school; the old man was stern and tough, but he was exactly what Katsuya needed in order to focus and really learn the game. He knew he still had a long way to go, but at least he was learning the basics.

Then, his apprenticeship under Sugoroku came to a… really unexpected end.

One day, Yugi received a mysterious package over the mail; it contained a glove with star chips, and a strange VHS tape. It had apparently been sent by Pegasus of Industrial Illusions, the creator of Duel Monsters.

The tape started out normal, then got weird as the white-haired man on tape seemed to address Yugi personally as if he could talk to him through the video tape, going so far as to challenge him on the spot.

Then the tape suddenly cut to static - at least, sudden for everyone except Yugi, who began hitting and shaking the television screaming for his grandpa, who had suddenly keeled over unconscious.

It took a while, but once they managed to get their hysteric friend calmed down, he explained that Pegasus had a magical item related to his Millennium Puzzle, that allowed him to challenge him to something called a 'Shadow Game' and had stolen his grandfathers soul. And the only way to get it back is if he participated in a major tournament taking place in Duelist Kingdom, an island owned by Pegasus.

For a moment, Katsuya and the others wondered if maybe Yugi had gone insane from grief and his grandfathers coma was actually the result of a stroke or something; but with all of the weird stuff that went on around Yugi they couldn't discount it either.

And the timing couldn't have been better (or worse) because a few days later Katsuya also received a less-than-favorable VHS tape; his having been sent by his estranged sister in the United States.

Over tape, Shizuka explained that she was running out of time, and she was hoping to _see_ him and the twins in person for real, but that wasn't going to be possible; she didn't say it outright, but Katsuya knew exactly what she was talking about. She had been diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease at an early age, and had been projected to lose her sight at a young age, fourteen at most.

And she was only twelve.

There was a possibility of recovery; but it required an expensive eye surgery that their parents couldn't afford. Their father was in poverty and their mother made modest wages at most as a nurse.

He felt so helpless. Shizuka was his sister and he couldn't help her - he felt especially sympathetic towards his father. As much as he loved his sister, he didn't know how much worse he would feel if it was _his_ own child.

The group was mostly down as Yugi prepared for the Duelist Kingdom tournament - he was given an official invitation via letter - he had to fight for his grandfathers' soul, and he had to do it alone. The other three of their group really wanted to go with him and be there for him, but it didn't look like it was possible; as they read the fine-print of the rules, it turned out that the event was huge and invite-only for only high ranking duelists.

And the boat was going to be leaving in two days.

However, the fine print also revealed a huge prize of three million yen, which of course stole all of Katsuya's attention; that would be more than enough to pay for Shizuka's eye surgery, and the hospital bills accumulated by their split family.

And Yugi, being the selfless person he was, didn't even care about the money, he just wanted his grandfather back.

Now, originally if Katsuya did go he would have just gone to be supportive of Yugi, but when the cash prize was revealed he realized he had to now be a participant.

Katsuya didn't go home or to the game shop after school, instead he marched himself and the twins to the rooftop of the school, where he sat deep in thought. Rose was asleep and Axel was fussing as he violently chewed on the neck of his stuffed giraffe; Katsuya kept them in their carseat carrier this time, rocking it back and forth on the ground every now to keep them pacified.

"Jonouchi, what are you doing up here?" Yugi asked as he joined him on the roof, plopping down next to his free side "What's with you?" His friends aloof attitude had not lost on his friends.

"I'm just thinking about a whole lot of stuff." Katsuya admitted vaguely; he heard Axel squeal and reached over to wiggle his fingers against his chubby baby neck, making the boy giggle "Yugi, you do know that I care about your gramps, right? I mean, he taught me about the heart of the cards."

"Of course I know." Yugi nodded, folding his arms over his knees.

"I mean it! One way or another, I'll help you beat Pegasus." Although he did have his ulterior motives, Katsuya wanted more than anything to just help his friend, who had to this point been like a surrogate brother.

"That really means a lot to me Jonouchi." Yugi chuckled, staring out at the sun sinking over the lavender horizon "I'm glad we're friends."

A wisp of nostalgia curled in Katsuya's chest as he looked down to the tri-haired teen "Remember the first time we met?"

"I'll never forget it - it was all because of the Millennium Puzzle." He began, picking up the pendant with both hands "The way grandpa explained it to me, the puzzle was originally found in some Egyptian Ruins. My grandpa gave it to me and kind of dared me to solve it. It was the most incredible thing I had ever seen; as soon as I touched it, I knew it was special." There was a fondness in Yugi's tone; Katsuya knew the Puzzle meant a lot to Yugi, but sometimes he wondered if there was _something else_ to that necklace he lugged around. There always seemed to be a distinct air of… something powerful, where the Millennium Puzzle was concerned. "I made a wish on the puzzle; I asked it to give me a real friend."

Katsuya found this curious; wasn't Anzu Yugi's friend all the way from childhood? Well, Yugi did harbor a little more than platonic feelings for her… Maybe he meant a friend he wasn't in love with.

"And I think the Puzzle came through for me." A mischievous glint appeared in Yugi's eyes "That was when I met up with you and Honda. Although, you sure didn't act like my friends at first."

Katsuya couldn't help a chuckle, and crossed his arms over his chest; Axel whined at the lack of attention before returning to chomping on his stuffed toy. Aggressive little bugger, just like his dad really. "Me and Honda were just teasing you - it was for you, you know, we just wanted to toughen you up so you could stand up to the real bullies."

Yugi rolled his eyes "Teasing?" He huffed, feigning anger, before breaking into a grin "I was more referring to the time you choked out Ushio to get my Puzzle back."

"Yeah… It just didn't seem right. He was a mean one alright, but at least he's expelled now." Katsuya recalled; he wasn't sure what had gotten Ushio expelled, some incident with a teacher maybe. "But it was really _you_ who saved our necks by getting us away, if I had stuck around he definitely would have turned me into a splat on the wall."

"At least you figured out where he had thrown away my missing Puzzle piece." Yugi nodded along, looking down fondly at his pendant. "If you hadn't found that, I could never have solved the Millennium Puzzle.

"I owed it to you, I had been acting like a real jerk."

"Oh? Were you _acting?_ "

Katsuya couldn't help a laugh "I guess I deserved that one." Axel was getting more whiny now, so Katsuya unstrapped him from the seat and bounced him gently on his knee to appease him "The truth of the matter is Yugi… You're the best friend that I've ever had."

"Yeah!" Yugi nodded in agreement, then appeared downcast as his gaze turned back to the floor "It's too bad you can't go with me to rescue grandpa..."

He kissed the top of Axel's head, and the baby calmed down a little bit, and shifted him so he could free one arm "Don't worry," he assured Yugi, reaching over and squeezing Yugi's arm gently "somehow, someway, I promise we'll do it together."

"Together?" Yugi's mood lifted.

"You bet. We're a team, Yugi."

Axel made a mumbling noise, muffled by his dads chest.

Katsuya chuckled and rubbed the babies back, which he much have wanted since he curled up more, now sucking his thumb "I mean, we got a plus two, but we are a team."

"But how can you go without an invitation? And who's going to take care of the twins if you do?"

Katsuya didn't answer, just hummed in thought; he had a plan.

* * *

He tried sneaking onto the boat.

It was unsuccessful.

However, Yugi managed to save him last minute by giving him one of his two starchips; the rules stated that as long as someone had a starchip, they were officially a participant in the Duelist Kingdom tournament.

Once boarded, they were crammed into a holding area, as the private rooms were given to finalists from the last tournament earlier. There, they met an absolutely gorgeous female Duelist who had infatuated Katsuya on sight, and Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki, two Duelists Katsuya had seen compete live on television shortly before.

Those two were an… interesting pair, to say the least. At least Haga let them know that there were new rules on the island for the tournament. Katsuya tried explaining the heart of the cards to Ryuzaki, who dismissed him and said he would stomp him before walking out.

Haga stayed, however, and continued to point out some strategies including how other playing were already swapping cards for the purpose of getting new cards to strengthen their deck, and get a feel for their possible opponents strategies. Katsuya immediately got in on that as Yugi and Haga continued talking, excited to get in on the action.

He managed to score himself some decent cards; Salamandra, Baby Dragon, Kunai with a Chain, and Shield and Sword. Yugi also gave him a free Time Wizard.

However, then Haga rejoined them, and although Katsuya didn't have a good feel for his intentions, Yugi was too trusting and allowed the Bug Duelist to see his Exodia card set, the same one that had allowed him to beat Kaiba.

Then he threw them over the edge of the boat, and walked away laughing at them.

While he was tempted to just squash Haga like the bug he was, Katsuya was too concerned with helping Yugi - his friend who always went out of his way to help him. So he bailed himself over the edge of the boat to try to grab the Exodia Cards from the water. Yugi screamed at him to get back to the ship, but Katsuya was determined to do right by him and managed to grab two of the cards. If he couldn't even help Yugi when he needed him, how was he going to help his sister when she needed him?

He had underestimated the current and was slammed by a wave; Yugi ended up jumping into the water too, to assist him because the current was too strong for an admittedly poor swimmer like himself.

They ended up saved by Honda, who had unknowingly to Yugi snuck onto the boat as well. Yugi managed to rouse him to climb up the latter, and they both ended up spitting out sea water on deck. Katsuya tried apologizing to Yugi for not grabbing all five of the cards, but Yugi wasn't having any of it, then Katsuya had to admit how he felt like he was never able to help anyone he cared about, not even his sister.

They were surprised he even had a sister, even Honda didn't know because they met not long after his parents' divorce. So he explained the situation with his sister and how a big reason he came was for the prize money so he could help her, because the clock was ticking on the time needed to repair her eyesight before it was too late.

He ended up crying in place, and Yugi in Honda cried with him in solidarity, feeling his very real desperation and despair.

"That's such a noble reason, Jonouchi." They heard; they turned to see Anzu approaching from the back deck.

"-No. Way." Yugi said, as he noticed what, or _who,_ was with Anzu. And Katsuya knew exactly what he meant.

"Uh… Yes way… can't afford a nanny, you know." Katsuya laughed nervously as Anzu knelt down; she struggled to hold both of the twins at the same time.

"You brought the twins with you?!" Yugi sounded horrified.

"I had to!" Katsuya defended; not only could his dad not afford to take off work, but (although he'd never admit to it allowed) he was not willing to part from the babies for _any_ reason; until they were old enough, they were not leaving his side. Maybe it was irrational, and a little bit irresponsible, but if Katsuya was responsible he wouldn't even have kids.

"Does your dad know!?" Yugi asked as Honda draped a towel over them both.

"I mean… he'll find out when he comes home and see's the note I left."

His friends sweat-dropped.

"He'll kill you." Honda said nonchalantly..

"Only a little bit." Katsuya waved his concern.

* * *

When the boat arrived to the Island, the next hurdle was the guards discovering the four stowaways in their group.

Even though Katsuya was the one with two literal babies strapped to his chest and back, it was Honda who the most nervous about getting caught. When Katsuya had went through the boardwalk, of course he had been frisked a little, mostly due to confusion, but in the end the guards had to let him through because technically babies weren't against the rules, it's not like they could compete anyways.

He got a lot of stares that day, but being a teen parent he was pretty used to it at this point. If anything, he was just excited the whole group had made it to the Island together safe and sound.

He had caught a cold from jumping into the ocean last night, so his friends basically forced him to relinquish the twins to Honda for their health. From a distance he could see Haga staring at them with a mocking look, and Katsuya needed all of his mental fortitude to stop himself from beating him into beetlejuice, and judging by the rage in Yugi's face he was thinking the same thing.

When all of the duelists got off the boat they were all shepherded into the nearby castle, up the stairs Anzu swore up and down she saw Bakura from school, but the rest of the group did not see what she saw, so they just continued on, even when she insisted she saw him on the boat as well.

They waited on the castle grounds for Pegasus to greet them, surrounded by chatter about the strongest duelists and how the world champion Kaiba was beat by Yugi, something Katsuya felt pride over his friend but also disgust at the possibility of Kaiba being there.

When Pegasus showed up, Katsuya felt an unknown sense of dread; he glanced nervously at the twins who were still strapped to Honda, feeling as if Pegasus could somehow see everything about them. Although, doing so he also noticed Ryuzaki staring at his friend group, seeming a little mystified; a harsh glare from Katsuya made the Dino Duelist look away.

Pegasus welcomed them to Duelist Kingdom, explained how one of them might be crowned King of Games, and how the tournament would really put their skills to the test- _that_ sentiment admittedly gave him just a little bit of nervous jitters. They were to wager star chips in their duels, and they needed ten in total to be admitted to the castle, meaning he and Yugi each needed to win nine.

The Island was dotted with full dueling arenas and new rules would be implemented as they compete; he didn't tell them what the rules were though because 'there was no fun in that', and personally Katsuya wondered how competent this man really was.

And then Pegasus retreated back to the castle. The start of the tournament was signaled by fireworks.

Roughing it in the woods wasn't going to be fun, but at least he had the sense to pack accordingly for himself and the twins. This tournament should only take a few days, maybe even a week at most.

They came across Haga, who laughed maniacally as they chased him through the woods; he 'trapped' Yugi at an arena where he challenged him to a Duel.

Yugi accepted, and his demeanor changed entirely; he became 'all business' with his voice deepening, and he even seemed to get a little taller. This happened every time he Dueled seriously, so it wasn't so unexpected anymore.

Since they were just watching the duel, Katsuya took this opportunity to prepare some formula for the twins, because it was around the time they needed lunch anyways. There were several duelists milling around, but they were too captivated by the duel between Haga and Yugi, so thankfully none of them stared at him.

Katsuya took Rose off of Honda and wordlessly handed one of the bottles to his friend; he then took a random tree stump for himself so he could sit and feed his daughter; Honda had to stand as he fed Axel, but he didn't seem to mind because it was easier to see the duel that way. When the boy had finished, he gave him back to Katsuya.

The duel went on with Haga shown to be a liar and cheater, and at some point the female Duelist from the boat - Mai Kujaku - came up and started something with Anzu. At first she called them losers because they didn't realize who Yugi was up against; but then she stopped herself when she saw Katsuya with babies. Interest, and a cross being concern and judgement sparked in her eyes; something Katsuya was all too familiar with when dealing with adults "Do your parents know you brought your baby siblings here?"

"I _am_ the parent." He told her, lowly; shock appeared not just on her face, but on some of the other duelists who overheard him.

"How- how old are you?" Mai blurted out, shocked. The judgement in her tone wasn't appreciated, because no matter how many times he heard it was never less offensive.

However, Anzu jumped on it before Katsuya could "No one asked you," the brunet snapped at her "so, why don't you just take a hike?"

Mai muttered an excuse about wanting to see Haga defeat Yugi and walked a couple paces away; and even though she tried to hide it, Katsuya could still see her watching him from the corner of her eye. She stayed quiet for the rest of the duel.

Of course, with moral support from his friends, Yugi managed to pull a win even with Haga's cheating and home field advantage, to the shock of everyone except his group. And they were all excited; not only had Yugi won his first _official_ duel, but it had been against the regional champion!

Mai had muttered something about not thinking Yugi could beat Haga, before she left along with the rest of the crowd. Haga himself was dismayed, refusing to believe he had lost; Yugi scolded him for lying and cheating, and took his star chips. Katsuya helped himself to Haga's gauntlet, since now he was disqualified, but not before calling him a disgrace.

* * *

Katsuya had been fired up from Yugi's duel and gaining a gauntlet; he's been dreading the tournament so far but now he had that familiar spark he had when he started playing, and found himself looking forward to duels, even though they would be challenging.

At one point he jokingly announced to his friends his desire to be the next champion, and they sweatdropped at his perceived naivete. Under his excitement though, he was much more solemn.

"I better be champion." He mumbled as he sat at the edge of a hill, holding Rose up by the chest so she could 'stand' on her feet, which she immensely enjoyed. Axel was lying on a blanket Katsuya had laid on the grass for him "For your aunt Shizuka's sake - and for your guys sake. All of you count on me..."

"Does he really talk to them like they can understand him?" He heard Anzu fail to whisper quietly to Honda.

"It's a parent thing, we wouldn't understand." Honda shook his head.

"I made a promise to her, when we were kids and went to the beach," he continued to explain quietly to the twins, ignoring his friends judge-y comments "I'm going to make sure she doesn't lose her eyesight, and show her that beautiful ocean one more time."

Once he was done unloading his sentimentality on his children, he turned back to his friends and they talked strategy - most of his cards were fighter types, so the meadow field was better suited for him; although, even with turf advantage his inexperience and having only one star chip was in the way, so his friends tried talking him into finding a duelist who wasn't a pro.

They came across Mai again, who was smug over her victory of some small-fry duelist; she glanced at Katsuya and the twins before focusing on Yugi and trying to convince him to duel, which Anzu especially seemed to want.

However, Mai flipped her interest to duel on Katsuya, which confused him greatly. She then explained that she wanted to take him out because of his status of the weakest duelist on the island. He was hesitant at first, because she was a pro duelist, but then she said the worst possible thing she could have said.

"A teen parent has no place here."

As cool as she tried to play it, she was frightened when his head snapped up and he glared at her with fire in his eyes " _Bitch_ ," he spat with venom "I _dare_ you to say that again."

She had the sense to not repeat herself.

He accepted her challenge, hanging off the twins to Honda and Anzu as he did so; they were awake this time and seemed to also be watching the duel, even if they didn't understand what exactly they were watching.

Katsuya, surprisingly, ended up winning the duel when he saw through her cheating strategy of spraying her cards with perfume. She was shocked he had seen through it, but he was able to catch it so easily because when he had been pregnant, when his sensitivity to taste had gone up, so had his sensitivity to smells. And it hadn't faded yet thankfully.

Mai seemed to devastated to lose to an amateur, that even with her previous comment Katsuya still felt sympathy for her. He tried talking her down about how there was more to duel monsters than power, and that if she really wanted to be a champion she should learn how to care about others, but he didn't know if his advice fell onto listening ears as she left without any more words after giving him a star chip.

"Looks like you've learned to fight with your head… and your heart." Yugi told him as he climbed down from the arena. The twins were now making a bunch of speaking noises, as if they were also trying to cheer their dad.

Grinning, high off of his first victory, Katsuya took both of the twins and hugged them close, and they continued to make happy squeaks at him; they couldn't understand what was going on, but one thing they could understand was that he was happy.

"Seven more to go." Katsuya happily told his friends, and the twins, who cooed at him in response.

_To be continued…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors note: And here concludes part 1 of duelist kingdom, it's probably going to have like three parts, but the next two parts are probably going to be much longer. Most chapters will feature multiple episodes because it's easier on me, and the readers. Most of us watched the anime already, so we don't need to go through it line-to-line all over again.
> 
> You may be thinking "Why would Katsuya bring his babies onto a boat and an island he snuck onto? That's dangerous! And irresponsible!" To which I answer, of course it is. We all know that. HOWEVER, this story also follows anime logic, so parenting skills tend to take the back seat to the plot. And he's only sixteen, still a child himself, so he's not mature even if he was forced into a very adult situation. Being forced to grow up doesn't mean maturity.
> 
> Parenting in Yu-gi-oh especially is notoriously lacking: parents are either abusive, absent, or completely uninvolved, so technically Katsuya's already doing better based on his dedication to parenting Axel and Rose. (They're around 6 months old now)
> 
> Plus, Katsuya's feelings towards his children are PATERNAL, not necessarily maternal; maternal is the nurturing portion of parenting; paternal is protect/provide, and Katsuya has really internalized the whole 'you're the safest when you're in my arms' approach to parenting. He doesn't do the 'baby talk voice' or give them endearingly cute nicknames like sweetheart or darling, because although some dads do that that's usually older dads, Jonouchi is still a teen so he isn't going to be overly cutesy because of his masculine pride. He usually just calls them 'guys' when talking to both, or maybe even 'baby' if individually talking to one.


	4. Don't Get Sent to the Graveyard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CH.3 Recap:
> 
> Yugi: Jonouchi bringing your infant children to an island in the middle of nowhere was incredibly irresponsible of you.
> 
> Katsuya: How many card game tournaments for minors have been held on uninhabited islands, again?

There had to be something illegal about this tournament. Magically stealing a soul and holding it hostage couldn't be proven in a court of law - but Pegasus was hosting a tournament on an uninhabited island with no room or board, and no means of access to food or hygiene products; and this tournament consisted almost entirely of minors, as well. Katsuya had already expected the lack of supplies needed for babies, so he had already prepared for that, but that didn't save him or his friends from hunger.

"Don't you at least have that baby cereal mush?" Honda had complained aloud after the first day.

Katsuya pulled the supply bag closer to himself, as he held the twins on either of his knees; they were making vague one-syllable noises. "They can't eat solid food yet." He told him, irritated because he was hungry too and Honda wasn't making it better.

"They're six months old, shouldn't they have started on solids?" Anzu inquired, tapping her own cheek curiously.

Katsuya shook his head "They were born premature, so they're a little behind. Doctor said to wait at least another month." He explained; the twins had met some milestones at six months, but fell short on others. Their motor and speech skills were fine for their age, in fact Rose's speech skills seemed a little advanced all things considered, but they could still only handle formula.

Honda tried his hand at gathering food from the great outdoors with his book on edible plants as a guide, but fell short on his promise because most plants looked too similar for comfort. Their collective hunger had gotten so great they ended up stealing some fish that were roasting over an open fire - thankfully, the guy who had caught them, a guy named Mako Tsunami, was initially ticked at them for the thievery, but was then pretty cool about it once he saw their party contained Yugi Motou.

No surprise, he ended up challenging Yugi to a Duel, gave them his tragic backstory™, and then swam off. Weird guy, but at least he fed them, unlike Pegasus.

They handed wandered very far when Katsuya's paternal instincts suddenly went off like fireworks. _Something_ was wrong… although he couldn't put his finger on anything besides the overwhelming anxiety his was suddenly feeling; nothing was obviously wrong with the twins, which made him even more paranoid.

On edge, he started paying more attention to his surroundings than usual. It got worse after they encountered a duelist who was getting shipped off the island, who explained that his star chips had been stolen by _a kid._ Yugi, with his good heart, promised to get the star chips back.

Katsuya was more focused on the thief being a kid; if the duelist who had gotten robbed was only twelve or so, the thief must have been _really young._ Maybe that was why his annoying parental instincts were going off. He thought it was bad enough he had so much concern over his own kids, but now he was going to worry about every brat on the face of Earth? What kind of bullshit was that?

They went over to the scene of the crime hoping the thief hadn't gotten far.

"So, what's your brilliant mind telling you now, Sherlock?" Honda asked sarcastically as they approached the dueling arena. Katsuya was just barely paying attention to the mocking words of his friend though, and was more focused on the foliage and his finely tuned sense of _oh shit there's a kid here._

Yugi decided to wait near the dueling arena expecting the thief to come back, and Katsuya took that chance to lay out a blanket and set the twins down; they squealed initially in protest, but seeing Yugi nearby made them more giddy about being set down. They couldn't crawl yet, but they were getting better at holding themselves up and rolling.

Letting his gut feeling take over, he wandered around seemingly aimlessly, before suddenly reaching into the bushes and pulling out exactly what he had expected; a kid wearing a beanie and a bandanna over his face. "THIS must be the kid we're looking for." Katsuya said; the kid tried wacking him but couldn't.

"Don't try me you big dork!" The kid shouted, struggling in the teens grasp but unable to break free.

"You got him!" Honda exclaimed in shock, unsure of how Katsuya had known where to find him.

"Let's see who we're dealing with." Katsuya said in a 'I'm-not-mad-I'm-just-disappointed' voice, a tone he realized with annoyance he had picked up from his own dad. He then pulled off the disguise, revealing a messy mop of long, black hair. His heart skipped a beat. They knew who this was. "Kaiba Mokuba?"

"What are you doing here?" Yugi asked, still sitting on the blanket and currently supporting Rose who couldn't quite sit up on her own yet.

"I don't have to explain myself to the likes of you!" Mokuba shouted; Katsuya hissed when he kicked him in the shins, but he didn't let go of him.

"Actually, I think I know why you're here - you want to duel." Yugi deduced, letting the infant he was holding bounce between his hands "That's what you want, right? You want to duel me?"

Mokuba nodded furiously "Aw, you better believe it!"

" _No._ " Everyone looked in surprise at Katsuya's non-negotiation.

"...What?" Mokuba asked in surprise, looking up at the now suddenly very paternal teen.

"No. No dueling, something isn't right." Katsuya said, marching the young boy over and gently pushing him to sit on the blanket; the twins squeaked at the new face, seemingly excited. Katsuya realized they were looking at their _uncle_ for the first time and didn't even know it, and vice versa for Mokuba. "Now, explain to us why you're here, and why you're stealing." Mokuba tried to get up and maybe run off, but Katsuya simply sat down behind and put his arms over him gently, strong enough to keep him in place but not enough to cause him discomfort. Katsuya's friends were all confused because of their own lack of parental instincts, but allowed this.

After a few minutes, Katsuya managed to calm and talk the kid down; something that greatly surprised the rest of the Yugi-tachi.

"Thanks to Yugi, Seto is gone, and Pegasus is trying to take over Kaiba Corp." Mokuba began, his voice heavy and close to tears, but through the sadness he managed to crossly glare at Yugi "I don't know what you did to my big brother when you dueled, Yugi, but ever since that defeat, he hasn't been the same."

' _Good._ ' Katsuya couldn't help but think bitterly.

"He ran away because of you!" Mokuba almost shouted, but lowered his voice when he saw it had scared the twins a little bit "And with him gone, Pegasus moved right in. Some Kaiba Corp executives invited him to some kind of secret board meeting. I overheard them saying that they wanted to capture me and take out my brother!" The tears were real this time, and Katsuya felt both sympathy and anger pang in his chest; he didn't like Kaiba, but they had kidnapped a vulnerable child for stakes in a company, and that was unforgivable "It's all your fault!" If Katsuya didn't have his arms around him, he didn't doubt Mokuba would have socked Yugi in the face from across the blanket. "Seto deserted me, because of you!"

"You don't understand." Yugi tried to console; there was a flash of light and Yugi seemed to… go into his dueling persona, his eyes sharpening and his posture getting straight, as if he had suddenly grown taller.

"Mokuba, your brother hasn't deserted you." 'Yugi' said, his voice oddly deep now "He's searching for himself."

"Liar!" Mokuba shouted, and Katsuya rolled his eyes and mentally snorted; sometimes Yugi really did see too much good in people.

"Yelling at me won't bring your brother back." Yugi chided softly. "And we want to stop Pegasus as much as you do. He's taken my grandfather prisoner."

Katsuya didn't like Kaiba, but Mokuba was just a kid, he didn't deserve any of this. Even though he didn't have confidence or trust in Kaiba right now, it was clear to him that Mokuba loved his older brother, and was worried about him. "That's right," he forced out "Pegasus is the bad guy here."

Mokuba slumped against Katsuya in defeat, who loosed his arms enough to allow the boy to wipe his own tears away "I have to protect my brothers company..."

"You don't have to protect anything, you're the one who needs to be protected." Katsuya promised; and squeezed Mokuba a bit to comfort. And his efforts seemed to work, because Mokuba suddenly turned around and hugged him back, hiding into his shoulder.

Shocked, Katsuya simply rubbed the boys back as he sniffled. "I just want to help Seto..." Mokuba muttered, muffled, Katsuya nodded.

"He's a big boy, he can help himself for now." Katsuya promised in a gentle tone he only ever used with his son and daughter, "Right now, I'll make sure you're safe."

* * *

From then on Mokuba stayed firmly attached to Katsuya's side. He explained that he had no idea where his older brother was, but he had confidence that Pegasus's goons hadn't taken him out, and he should be there soon to rescue him.

They tried to return the starchips he had stolen, but the boat had already been sent away by the time they got to the guard had tried to grab Mokuba, but Katsuya wasn't having any of it; he knocked the guy flat out before he could even touch Mokuba. Unfortunately, this was after throwing the star chips away, leaving Yugi with only three.

Mokuba was of course feeling guilty about this, but the group forgave him and kept him under their (well, Katsuyas') protection.

"Hey how come you brought your siblings here?" Mokuba had asked as they walked away from the docks, clinging onto one of Katsuyas' arms; the other one was occupied by Axel.

" _To!_ " Rose cooed up at Katsuya, very close to the Japanese word for dad.

"Actually, they're my kids." Katsuya explained; which bewildered Mokuba.

"But how?"

"Uhh, you should probably ask your brother for the talk when he gets back..."

 _'Did anyone ever give Kaiba the talk?'_ Katsuya questioned mentally ' _Maybe if they had he wouldn't have gotten someone pregnant at fifteen…'_

So after that they wandered aimlessly through the woods again, which would have been counter-productive if it hadn't been working so far. They ended up in a field full of dozens of duelists, and Katsuya tried to stake out a challenge; all while his friends made a bunch of dueling monkey comments, much to his annoyance.

"Mokuba, do you think you can hold the twins for me?" He asked Mokuba, deciding to give Honda the silent treatment for his douchebaggery. The boy looked mystified.

"I don't know if I can hold two..." The boy said, even as Katsuya crouched down to his level.

"It's not difficult, here lemme put the sling on you..."

There was a little big of a hassle to adjust the sling to Mokuba's small frame, but he managed to get Axel strapped to his (unknowing) uncles back, and helped him properly hold Rose in his arms.

"Look how cute you are!" Anzu near squealed, her, Honda and Yugi all ogling the small boy with the two babies, which flustered the younger Kaiba quite a bit.

Before Katsuya could say anything, a chill ran up his back "Oh no," he said, stiffening as he felt a dark presence approaching "tell me that's not who I think it is." He dared say to his friends when he heard a very feminine laugh from close behind him.

He then turned and confirmed that Kujaku Mai was behind him. "How are you Katsuya," she greeted, the use of the first name would have grated him more if she wasn't so alluring "glad to see me?"

"Ecstatic." He replied sarcastically; the older womans attention then turned to Mokuba and the twins.

"How are your children? You seem to have gotten another one." She walked over and knelt in front of Mokuba, who stepped back and hid behind Katsuya a little. Rose seemed curious, looking directly at Mai, and even reached out to her.

Mai reached forward also, as if to grab the baby from Mokuba, but Katsuya shifted to cover the three more "Don't touch them." He warned, remembering her teen parent comment from the other day. She didn't seem intimidated this time, but she did back off with an eyeroll.

"So, is Yugi still fighting all of your battles for you?" She asked, fake-friendly, her tone quickly growing more condescending with each word "Everyone knows if Yugi wasn't there to hold your hand, you wouldn't have beat me. Isn't that right, Yugi?"

"That's not true." Yugi didn't miss a beat in defending his friend

"Oh really?" She crossed her arms. "Then I propose he steps out of your shadow, here and now. If Jonouchi thinks he's so tough, let's see him play for himself."

Katsuya was at a loss of words; was she really so pissed that he beat her earlier? She already had eight starchips, why was she being this way? He felt Mokuba tug at his shirt, and looked down at the kid, who looked concerned.

"You don't have to listen to her, she's just baiting you." Mokuba told him softly, although he also seemed irritated that his new guardian was being taunted like this.

"I'm waiting for your answer, Jonouchi." She was now pointing at him "Think you have the guts to step up and face the duelist I've arranged for you?"

"It's not you?" He asked. So she didn't want to duel him herself?

She smirked, and from behind her came out a familiar face; Dinosaur Ryuzaki. He seemed a bit… distracted, and was looking right at Katsuya, but also seemed to be looking right past him as well.

When he didn't say anything and just kept staring, Mai nudged him "Well?" She said, crossly.

Ryuzaki shook his head "I'm uh, dueling on Mai's behalf." He said, still sounding distracted "Recognize me?"

Jonouchi knew who it was, but he wasn't going to let himself be intimidated by some guy who barely came up to his chest "This twerps supposed to scare me or something?" He challenged "I bet you he isn't so tough." Admittedly, he was talking out of his ass right now because he knew Ryuzaki was the runner up for the regional championship.

"Ryuzaki placed second in the regionals, Jonouchi!" Anzu reminded him, voicing his very thoughts.

"Well Jonouchi, are you going to ask your baby-mama's permission or what?"

Anzu gasped "You think I'm-?!" Anzu and Katsuya were shocked at her accusation; they looked at each other quickly, then at the twins, and then away from each other, red with embarrassment.

"Wait, so is Anzu the mother?" Mokuba asked innocently.

 _"No!"_ Anzu near-shrieked in horror.

Katsuya frantically shook his head and waved his hands around dramatically "No! It's not like that! They only have me!" He exclaimed. Although, he supposed he couldn't blame them for the confusion, Anzu _did_ have brown hair and blue eyes just like-

"Can I hold one?" Ryzaki suddenly asked, in an uncharacteristically soft and shy voice.

"Wha?" Katsuya asked.

Ryuzaki blushed a little bit and pointed at Mokuba and the twins "One of the babies. Can I hold one? They're really cute."

"Ryuzaki!" Mai shouted in frustration "Stay focused!"

"You… want to hold one?" Katsuya asked for clarification; he was used to people asking him if they could hold or hug one of the babies, but this was usually from curious children, or women, not other teenaged boys who tended to avoid babies like the plague.

Ryuzaki nodded, "My uh, mother owns a daycare, so I spend a lot of time around small kids..." He explained, trying to work his way around admitting that he just plain and simply liked babies.

"Enough!" Mai interrupted before Katsuya could answer, which seemed to disappoint the Dino Duelist "Oh and by the way, if little Yugi does any of his backseat dueling, then Jonouchi is disqualified and the match goes to Ryuzaki. What do you say, Jonouchi? This is your big chance to prove yourself. Or are you going to back out?"

Mokuba started to answer for him "Of course he-"

Katsuya stopped her, and nodded at Mai "No, that's the way I want it - just me and him." He agreed, much to his groups chagrin "It may cost me all my starchips, but I don't deserve to keep them if the only reason I'm winning is because of Yugi. All of my life, people are trying to help me because they think I can't help myself." His tone grew tighter, remembering how almost everyone, including his friends and parents, seemed to have no faith in him as a duelist, and _especially_ as a parent. "Well. I'm a dad, so I don't need to be babied this time."

As if to prove his point, Rose started crying; Mokuba looked panicky for a moment, unsure of what to do about the crying. Without even glancing at them, Katsuya reached into his satchel and pulled out a pacifier, then crouched down and let the baby have it, which stopped her crying immediately. He saw a very fangirl-like expression on Ryuzaki's face, which was admittedly kind of cute; the dude really was a sucker for kids.

"You've lost it, Jonouchi." Honda dismissed "You can believe whatever you want, but I won't just stand here and watch you throw your chips away." He then glanced over at Ryuzaki and Mai "I hope you guys won't mind, but Jonouchi won't be coming out to duel today."

Katsuya started shaking in anger; being talked down to by _adults_ like Mai was one thing, but Honda, a peer, someone who was supposed to be a _friend?_ He wasn't having it.

"That's it!" Jonouchi exploded, whirling around and getting into Honda's face "Didn't you hear what I just said?! I am sick and tired of everyone thinking they have to come to my rescue!"

"That's not how it is..." Yugi walked up, trying to diffuse the situation "Friends look out for each other-" He was hushed by a sudden dark glare from his blond friend.

"Keep out of this, Yugi. Just let me do what I got to do."

Honda still wasn't convinced "Great idea," he crossed his arms indignantly "'do what you got to do', even if it means losing the chance to help your sister." The condescension in his tone wasn't quite up to par with Mai's, because Katsuya knew that deep down his friend was just worried, but that didn't stop him from snapping.

"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S AT STAKE?" He yelled, grabbing Honda by the collar and yanking him over "I love my sister! I can make my own decisions, I don't need the likes of _you_ trying to drag me around like a kid!" He quickly grew emotional "Do you have any idea what I've already gone through for the sake of my family? How dare you accuse me of caring more about my pride! My family is poor as fuck, I'm not allowed to get a job to support us, and I wake up four times a fucking night because I gave up all of my freedom for my kids! If you had to face parenthood at this age, your ass would have ran the other direction, so don't you try to-!" Honda looked shocked, and Katsuya's angry energy was quickly picked up by Axel and Rose, who both started to cry, and Mokuba looked very concerned and struggled to try to calm the twins down.

"Listen!" Anzu joined in on the attempts to diffuse "Let's just cool off and-"

"Forget it!" Honda scoffed indignantly, turning away "If Mr. 'Responsible Adult' wants to lose, he can do it by himself."

Katsuya was too cross to try to stop him, and instead knelt down again to help Mokuba.

Mai and Ryuzaki were just standing there, awkward and confused.

* * *

Katsuya's duel with Ryuzaki ended up being really rough, his Baby Dragon and Time Wizard combo was ended before he could even start it, and it was few turns before he turned the tides by using a combination of one of his warrior cards that worked well with the warrior card he had swiped from Honda earlier. Honda cooled down and came back to support him, which admittedly helped a lot. Just when he thought he had Ryuzaki, the twerp turned it around _again_ by summoning his most powerful card, the Red Eyes Black Dragon, a rare and powerful monster that could rival the Blue Eyes when properly equipped.

Katsuya didn't know what it was, but he felt so unbelievably drawn to that particular monster "Hey Ryuzaki!" He called after the dragon destroyed both of his warrior monsters "How about we put up our cards with our star chips? You wanna beat Mai, right? My time wizard can beat her harpies!"

"What are you doing?" Mai demanded, hands on her hips; Ryuzaki looked confused, but interested.

"I don't know..." The brunet began "It's interesting. But I'm not seeing the incentive to agree to this".

Katsuya had to think hard for a second, because he _really_ wanted that card "If you agree to the wager," he racked his brain "I'll-... let you hold one of the twins." He mumbled the last part.

"I didn't hear you." Ryuzaki called over the arena.

"If you agree to the wager I'll let you hold one of the twins! Hell, both of them if you at least wash your hands first!" Katsuya exclaimed; his friends looked at them both like they were crazy, and Mokuba especially seemed confused.

Mai huffed in disbelief "Like Ryuzaki would ever agree to-"

"Deal!" Ryuzaki exclaimed back, gleefully.

Katsuya ended up winning the duel. Much to literally everyone's shock. Except the twins, who started both started laughing. Katsuya was beginning to think they could tell when he won.

Ryuzaki ended up extremely upset, because he lost the duel, his star chips, his red eyes, and his chance at Duelist Kingdom. Once Katsuya saw the forlorn expression on the other teens face at the loss, though, he took pity on him.

"I did promise you could hold one of the twins, you know." Katsuya reminded him, putting one arm over him. Ryuzaki perked up a bit.

Mai left in an angry huff, and they gained another party member in Ryuzaki. Much like Mokuba, he ended up firmly attached to Katsuya's side, as he was told that that was pretty much the only way to avoid getting dumped onto a rowboat without star chips.

* * *

With how big their group was now, they set up camp for the night; Katsuya tucked Mokuba in for the night, and Ryuzaki agreed to keep watch over the twins and Mokuba as they set up a fire. If Ryuzaki really did have experience with kids, it definitely showed; Axel and Rose took to the Dino Duelist right away.

That didn't solve their hunger problem though, they still had no food besides formula, and the fish they had eaten from Mako the other day had long since cleared their systems; at one point Katsuya tried eating a poisonous mushroom; it wasn't fun. Even Ryuzaki didn't have any food left, leaving them in a desperate position.

They were rejoined by Mai, who uncharacteristically gave them all of her food, explaining that she was going to the castle the next day and didn't need an entire knapsack of food. Although the group, especially Katsuya and Anzu, still didn't trust her, they were in no position to not accept food.

Her stipulations were simple; she wanted to share in their campfire, and she wanted Katsuya and Honda to gather water for the group. Yugi went in Katsuya's place, knowing his friend wasn't going to let the twins or Mokuba out of his sight for even a second.

Mai was much nicer to Anzu, allowing he to use her woodland shower while she guarded it from potential onlookers or perverts. Katsuya took up the task of cooking the food, which was some instant rice and curry, and ignoring Mai's remarks about him in a chefs hat and apron. Anzu got spooked by some noise in the woods, but Mai managed to chase whatever it was off.

Once the food was done, Katsuya had to rouse Mokuba and Ryuzaki from their sleep so they could also catch some dinner; Mokuba practically inhaled his, and Ryuzaki just tried his best to ignore Mai who might still be cross with him for losing against Katsuya.

"So, Jonouchi," Mai said to the blond in question as she watched him sit near where the twins were laying "who's the lucky lady?" She was of course referring to his kids absent 'mother'.

"They just have me." He answered vaguely; he saw Anzu nudge Mai, and probably quietly explaining to woman that it was an untouchable subject with him.

"I do think it's touching, you know," Mai continued "how much you care about them, what're their names?"

Katsuya blinked and looked down at the twins, Axel was sitting up with Katsuya's bag for support, and Rose had gotten stuck mid-way trying to roll from her belly onto her back. "My sons' name is Axel, and daughters' name is Rose." He explained, inching a bit closer to them.

"Accel?" Mai tried to repeat, having a hard time pronouncing the 'x'.

"English names." He explained, not blaming her for the mispronunciation. Both of their names were hard to pronounce to a native Japanese speaker, his own father couldn't even say them right and still berated him for not giving them Japanese first names. Usually he just called them by their Japanese middle names, which irked his son to no end.

Yugi, thankfully, changed to subject by complimenting Mai on her number of starchips, but she dismissed his niceties as an act, then vaguely threatened them, and finally went for a walk.

"It's a good thing you're not as confusing as her, Anzu." Katsuya remarked when she was out of ear shot "Or I'd think it was all women."

"Don't be sexist, Jonouchi." Anzu huffed, arms crossed.

Mokuba spoke up from his spot between Katsuya and Ryuzaki "She kind of reminds me of my brother." He said.

"Oh really? You mean Kaiba?" Ryuzaki inquired; the younger boy nodded.

"He can come off as cold, but deep down he has a good heart." The dark-haired boy elaborated. Katsuya mentally snorted; did he forget how he kidnapped Yugi's grandpa and put him in the hospital?

"I think you're selling your brother to the wrong crowd, kid." Katsuya muttered, Mokuba frowned, and rested against his arm.

"I miss him so much..." Mokuba replied. Katsuya felt a little guilty; he didn't trust Kaiba, but he wasn't going to take it out on his kid brother who still hero-worshiped him.

"I'm sure he's trying his best to hurry up and get you." Katsuya consoled in a lower voice so the others wouldn't hear him, and rested his cheek against the top of his head, nodding off for a minute.

* * *

He hadn't gotten much sleep when they were alerted by a rustling in the woods, and even though he initially thought it was Mai playing jokes on them it turned out to be their schoolmate, Ryou Bakura.

Although surprised, they allowed Bakura to join their group, and they ended up talking about their favorite cards; Ryuzaki's was the Two-Headed-Rex, Mokuba's was, unsurprisingly, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon overall, but of his own deck his favorite was the Turtle Tiger, Katsuya's was the Flame Swordsman (he felt a stronger connection to Red Eyes, but he hadn't had the chance to use it yet), Yugi's was the Dark Magician, Honda's was the Cyber Commander, and Anzu's was the Magician of Faith.

Bakura's favorite card was The Change of Heart, a spell card. He then challenged them to a duel for fun, with all of them putting their favorite cards into Yugi's deck. They accepted, relieved to have just a friendly duel without star chips or cards on the line, which was a mistake.

As it turned out, Bakura had a Millennium Item too. And he used it to drag them into the Shadow Realm. Everyone then had their souls put into the card they had chosen.

The night was a blur but throughout this duel there was some very important revelations; Yugi's 'dueling persona' was actually a separate person all along, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, and Bakura also had a Millennium Spirit Possessing him, except his spirit was evil.

Honda had been sent to the graveyard in the beginning of the duel, and so had Ryuzaki's when Katsuya had attacked a morphing jar and forced the Puzzle Spirit's hand to go to the graveyard, but the Puzzle Spirit managed to revive them. Most of them had decided to focus their efforts on protecting Anzu. Mokuba, luckily, hadn't been drawn throughout the duel and was spared the horrific experience.

Katsuya was freaking out the whole time, because even though time was apparently frozen he still technically left the twins by themselves. He sacrificed himself for the sake of a trap, not wanting Honda or Ryuzaki to go to the graveyard a second time. He ended up getting drawn back from the Graveyard due to Anzu, as the Magician of Faith, allowed the Puzzle Spirit to reuse Monster Reborn.

The Puzzle Spirit beat the Ring Spirit after Bakura as the Change of Heart turned on the evil spirit that had possessed him; rather than destroy Bakura, the Puzzle Spirit used the magic of his items to switch Bakura and Dark Bakura's places. Yugi as the Dark Magician used the opening to destroy Dark Bakura, sending him the Shadow Realm.

* * *

Believe it or not, after all of that their troubles for the night still weren't over; as soon as they just barely gathered their bearings they heard Mai scream off in the distant. Waking up the twins and sending them into a crying fit.

Gathering up the babies, and Mokuba, Katsuya and his friend hauled off in the direction of the scream. When they finally found Mai, she had been attacked by a man named Panik, an 'Eliminator' who was hired by Pegasus to disqualify as many Duelists as possible and cull the number of finalists.

Yugi and his Puzzle Spirit didn't stand for that so they switched places, with the Puzzle Spirit wagering all of his star chips for all of Mai's star chips. And even that wasn't enough for Panik because he used leg shackles and flamethrowers to intimidate Spirit as well, heavily implying that his very life was on the line.

"Stay strong, Yugi." Ryou had said as they watched the first line of flamethrowers go off, just barely missing the Puzzle Spirit, Mai shuddered where she stood, as those had been used against her as well.

"It's a good thing Pegasus didn't send one of those 'Eliminators' after me." Mokuba said to Ryuzaki, who nodded, as they both huddled close to Katsuya.

Despite his friends protests, the Puzzle Spirit didn't let himself get intimidated by the Eliminator and, as expected, won the duel with minimal problems. He even ending up doing a 'mind crush' on the guy, something that made Mokuba flinch heavily, because it was the same thing that had been done against his older brother.

Mai tried to refuse her star chips back, and as a joke Katsuya decided to take them for himself, playing a game of keep away with her for a moment but ultimately giving them back.

Mai parted ways with them from there, but much more amicably than she had before, even saying that she wanted an honorable duel with Yugi because she owed him.

And _then_ their hard night was finally over.

* * *

... _Until_ about an hour later.

"...Do you hear that?" Katsuya heard Ryuzaki ask; he cracked his eyes open, they were sleeping slumped against the trees, with Katsuya holding the twins, and Mokuba sleeping curled against his side. It looked like Yugi and Bakura hadn't even gone to sleep yet.

"Why does no one want me to sleep?" Katsuya mumbled to himself; the sound was beginning to wake all of them up, and Rose started whining at her sleep being disturbed. "First my _kids_ don't let me sleep, and then _spirits_ won't let me sleep, and then _duelists_ won't let me sleep, and now a _fu_ -"

"Helicopter!" Mokuba exclaimed as soon as the sound reached his young ears, he started tugging at Katsuya's green jacket.

Honda helped Anzu up, and strained up at the sky "There it is," he said, pointing at the sky where a dot was rapidly becoming more visible "is that one of Pegasus's or-?"

"It's my big brother! He's finally here!" Mokuba excitedly confirmed, beginning to drag Katsuya and as an extension, the group as he ran where he guessed the helicopter would land.

Axel and Rose were now wide awake from excitement, and Katsuya hoped to god that when they met up with Kaiba, he wouldn't even notice them.

_To be continued..._

* * *

**Canon events that have changed:**

-They find Mokuba and decide to keep him under their groups protection instead of dueling him

-As a result of Katsuya over-protectiveness, Mokuba is not re-captured.

-Ryuzaki is now part of the group, (platonically) smitten with Jonouchi.

-Instead of the duel with Kaiba where he threatens to kill himself, it's the duel with evil Bakura that reveals that Yugi and his 'dueling persona' are two different people, for now Yami is simply called 'The Puzzle Spirit' or just 'Spirit'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Note: ...Okay so there may be four parts instead of three. I'm trying. Here we have the glorious return of my BROTP!Ryuzaki/Katsuya, so it looks like Ryuzaki will now be part of the group, but maybe not in the way you'd think. I made him be the type of person who likes kids to justify making him a primary school teacher in my other fanfiction, Endearment and Enmity.
> 
> Jonouchi having dad instincts was a fun additional, so was his more uh, antagonistic relationship with Mai. He's still attracted to her, don't get me wrong, because he's the definition of disaster bi, but she also did basically say he couldn't be a good duelist because he was a single dad, so that wasn't cool.
> 
> Some of you may notice that while Jonouchi is overall a bit more responsible, he's still immature. He thinks very bitterly when Kaiba is brought up, and still lashed out at Honda like he did in the original. Once again, parenthood did not speed up his maturity; if anything, it stunted it. The only thing that really got better was his social awareness and empathy for others.
> 
> This story mostly uses Japanese names but 4kids plot elements, but some things are 'blended' for convenience; Mako Tsunami goes by his English name and not Ryota Kaijiki; Bakura is still British and although he's mostly speaking Japanese, he's a native United Kingdom English speaker, while Katsuya speaks the American Dialect of English. Also, Ryou Bakura is referred to as Bakura, while his yami is called 'Dark Bakura'.
> 
> ALSO, this story is in big part inspired by another puppy/violetshipping fanfiction called "Fusion" by A Dueling Heart.


	5. Don't Insult your Own Secret Love Children

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CH.4 Recap:
> 
> No one:
> 
> Literally no one:
> 
> Ryuzaki: *looks sad*
> 
> Katsuya: You are now my 4th child.

**Chapter 5: Don't Insult your Own Secret Love Children**

"Seto!" Mokuba shouted, and as soon as the helicopter touched down he left Katsuya's side for the first time since he was found, and sprinted over to the aircraft.

"Are we sure it's Kaiba?" Anzu asked cautiously as they followed. Honda gave her a look, and simply pointed to the big 'KC' on the side of the helicopter; she smacked him for being a smartass.

"Have you ever wondered why so many companies use English letters for their logo?" Ryuzaki asked suddenly; he was holding Axel while Katsuya struggled to get a now-too-small beanie on the baby brunets head, much to the babies annoyance.

"What do you mean?" Katsuya asked, kissing his sons cheek to settle him down.

"We're Japanese, but Pegasus and Kaiba both use English letters for their logo." Ryuzaki pointed out.

"Little bro, I'm pretty sure Pegasus is American."

"Are you sure?"

"I mean… His name is Maximillion Pegasus."

"I thought it was Pegasus J. Crawford-"

"It _is_ Kaiba!" They heard Anzu gasp, breaking up their dialogue.

Katsuya stiffened up; he covered Axel a little more with the blanket, and made sure Rose was facing him as he held her, then slowly turned. At the copter was Seto Kaiba, who looked _pleasantly_ surprised to be tackle-hugged by Mokuba.

"He's a lot taller in person." Ryuzaki remarked, Katsuya could only nod as his mouth went dry. He looked down at Rose in his own arms; she looked more like him than Kaiba, but maybe if he wasn't holding either of the twins, Kaiba wouldn't even pay attention to them.

"Can you hold Rose too, Ryuzaki?" Katsuya asked the shorter teen, who didn't even hesitate much to the blond's relief.

"Mokuba?" Kaiba asked in confusion, not paying attention to the entourage that had followed his sibling "I thought Pegasus had you."

"He did." Mokuba admitted, burying his face into his brothers torso so deeply his voice was all but muffled "But I escaped- and then Jonouchi and his friends saved me!"

"Jonouchi?" Kaiba glanced over at the group finally, his gaze held a subdued contempt when they slipped right past Katsuya and settled on Yugi. Katsuya realized with annoyed relief that even though they'd met before, they had technically never introduced themselves to each other.

 _Good_.

Yugi walked up to Kaiba, and the tall brunet spoke up again "I haven't seen you since our duel, Yugi."

Yugi nodded "We've been keeping Mokuba safe for you." He explained "Couldn't do anything about Kaiba Corp though." It wasn't outright said, but they all knew that they hadn't helped Mokuba for Kaiba's sake.

"I can see that, you will be compensated for all of your trouble." Kaiba nodded, respectful but still cold, and put his hand over Mokuba's shoulder, beginning to guide him away. Mokuba clung to his hand almost desperately.

And Yugi, _far too trusting, and too kind Yugi,_ called after him, "Actually, Kaiba, I was thinking that since we're all headed for Pegasus's castle, you could stick with us. Course, uh, you'll need some starchips."

If Katsuya didn't love Yugi so much, he would have smacked him.

Kaiba paused in place, making Mokuba stumble a little "Don't be so naive, this isn't just a game for me, Yugi. I'm going after Pegasus to save my company. Not so I can win some silly prize - have fun with your tournament." He scoffed.

"Snobby brat." Katsuya muttered under his breath, getting more annoyed than he meant to; then ran after him. Kaiba and Mokuba were stopped in their tracks again, this time by Katsuya blocking them "Listen tough guy, I can understand you trying to get your company back and all, but don't go thinking that your _noble cause_ is worth putting your brother in danger."

Kaiba whipped his head around to glare at him, which was returned; Mokuba in the meantime looked between his brother and Katsuya, a little conflicted.

"We've all got a stake with Pegasus, but going off on your own against him is dangerous- and if you think we're going to let you drag your kid brother out of the frying pan and back into the fire, you're going to have to get through me." Katsuya finished, standing his ground; he knew that Pegasus was willing to steal souls and kidnap children, and Kaiba was just going to face him with just a briefcase and no backup? Even someone as impulsive as him knew that was a bad idea.

Kaiba was silent for a second, before saying "Nice stance," he muttered, letting go of Mokuba's hand and stepping foreward "let me show you mine." He suddenly shoved right past him, and maneuvered his feet in a way that he could trip Katsuya his shoulder and hip, sending the former gangster onto the ground.

"Hey! That was uncalled for." Ryuzaki shouted from where he was; then started bouncing when one of the twins whined at the atmosphere and raised raised voices. The rest of the group also became apprehensive.

Yugi ran over to Katsuya side "Jonouchi, are you okay?" He asked.

"Relax!" Katsuya said, stopping Yugi from helping him and lifting himself back up "I'm fine."

"Do you really think I'm going to let you and your little tournament delay me from facing Pegasus?" Kaiba inquired, coldly.

"Seto..." Mokuba protested weakly, tugging his brothers coat as if to try to drag him away from the situation.

"Forget Pegasus, now you got me to deal with." Katsuya growled, brandishing his starchip-gauntleted fist "Bust out your cards." He demanded.

"Is he being brave or nuts?" Anzu muttered, Honda shrugged and Bakura seemed to seriously think about it for a second before shrugging as well.

"Forget it," Kaiba dismissed "Why don't you go look for an opponent you can actually beat, like one of those _infant mongrel bastard_ s of yours-"

If there had been a split second between Kaiba's insult and Katsuya's reaction, you might have been able to hear a pin drop. There wasn't though, because Katsuya's reaction was _instantaneous._

No one could even see him move with how fast he barreled into the taller teen; even Kaiba's reaction time had nothing on him in that split second, and he ended up on his back, on the ground, with an extremely paternally enraged Katsuya squeezing his head and face between his hands, and pressing his thumbs against his eyes.

"Jonouchi no-!" Yugi tried to stop him, but couldn't as his friend started lifting up and slamming Kaiba's head against the ground repeatedly.

"If you insult my kids again I will fucking kill you!" Katsuya growled ferally, out of control, as he continued to slam Kaiba's head against the ground over and over; Kaiba was trying to fight back but he had been overwhelmed so quickly and unexpectedly there wasn't much he could do in his current position except try to push Katsuya off, which wasn't working because his rage made him at least twice as strong as he should be.

Mokuba's shock quickly turned to horror "Stop- Jonouchi! Stop! Please stop!" He rushed over and also began pushing against the crazy duelist.

It was only when he started to hear Mokuba desperately crying for him to stop that he rage started to recede; the red in his vision faded immediately, and as soon as it did, he stopped, dropping Kaiba's head in shock at his own actions.

Kaiba was groaning in pain, not quite concussed but very stunned, and the back of his head was definitely bruised.

"I..." Katsuya rose up, putting his hands up as if to show he wasn't going to fight anymore, and backed up. "I didn't-..." He wasn't going to say he _didn't mean to_ because of course he meant to attack Kaiba, but he didn't mean to go that far.

"Seto? Are you okay?" Mokuba asked as he helped his brother sit up; the elder Kaiba continued to groan lowly in pain, and rubbed the back of his head before opening his eyes again.

His eyes showed a mix of anger and humiliation, and a third emotion that was gone as quickly as it appeared. "I'm alright, Mokuba." He tried to assure.

Mokuba sighed in relief. "Oh thank goodness." he said - then promptly slapped his elder sibling in the face.

"Ow- Mokuba!"

"Don't insult someone's babies! What's wrong with you?" Mokuba demanded, hands indignantly planted on his hips, clearly not impressed with his older brother sinking to such a level.

Kaiba didn't answer his brothers question, he just shakily got back onto his feet, still holding his sore head. When he was fully standing again, he glared angrily at his attacker, the rage he was feeling was so intense they could practically taste it in the air. Katsuya wasn't going to let himself be intimidated though, especially after the bastard had the gull to call Axel and Rose mongrels.

Admittedly, it hurt a little bit by proxy, because they didn't deserve that, especially from their (unknowingly) biological father.

"I don't have time for your nonsense," Kaiba growled, one hand still holding the back of his head "loser." He mumbled that part; he looked down at Mokuba, he still didn't look particularly impressed "Mokuba… stay with this group."

"...What?" Mokuba was surprised; and admittedly so was the rest of the Yugi-tachi.

"I'll deal with Pegasus on my own, you've been safe with this group so far; I'll meet up with you again after all of this is over and I've regained control of Kaiba Corp." He briefly knelt down to hug his brother, before hobbling into the woods, disappearing into the foliage.

The group was silent.

"Yo..." Ryuzaki started to say, looking to the group "Did all of that really just happen?"

" _Indubitably._ " Bakura confirmed in cockney English, mostly to himself.

Most of the group didn't understand him, but Katsuya did; the use of a ridiculous word in such a trying time made him burst out laughing.

* * *

Although Mokuba knew Kaiba had deserved it, he was still sore at Katsuya for attacking his brother, and was giving him the silent treatment now. They turned in for what would _hopefully_ be the final time that night, and even though they were now undisturbed, that didn't stop Katsuya from having weird dreams.

-Dream-

" _Those mongrel bastards? Mine?" A giant-sized Kaiba said over a cowering Katsuya, his face cold and cruel, his arms crossed "Like I would ever sleep down with a_ dog _like you."_

_Rose and Axel were innocently sitting in a playpen, unaware of a Blue Eyes White Dragon gathering energy for an attack above them "Mongrels like them aren't worth my time- but they're too good for a deadbeat like you."_

" _No!" Katsuya was helpless as all he could was reach out as the white lightning struck the playpen._

-End of Dream-

"-NO!" Katsuya shouted as he sprung awake in a cold sweat and near tears; he panted heavily and looked down, sighing in relief to see the twins sleeping safely in each of his arms. "Ah...A dream." He took a second to get his breathing under control, sitting up carefully as not to rouse his kids from their peaceful slumber.

"Urgh! Kaiba, that jerk!" He mumbled angrily to himself, shifting the twins in his arms so he could hold them closer to his chest "He doesn't know anything about you guys, and he _never_ will." He promised, though a little crossly. Rose yawned in her sleep but proceeded to just nuzzle against the fabric of his shirt.

It was morning now, and Katsuya looked around - mostly everyone was still asleep, with Mokuba wedged between Honda and Yugi, with Honda's tan trench coat draped over the kid like a makeshift blanket. Ryuzaki was resting against the same tree as Bakura, but had his knees hugged against his chest as he rested against them.

Katsuya closed his eyes, scooting up so he could rest a different tree - maybe he could get a few extra minutes of shut eye…

Then Axel started crying, waking everyone up. And his crying woke his twin up, so _she_ started crying too.

"Jonouchi!" Honda complained grouchily, not appreciating being awoken so suddenly; Mokuba was a bit more gracious, but the expression on his face said he wasn't a morning person either.

"Sorry, sorry!" He called back to his friends, frantically digging through the baby bag for supplies.

"What's all of the commotion about?" Anzu asked as she walked up from the other campsite nearby.

"One of Jonouchi's _precious angels_ made a mess of themselves." Honda muttered, but quiet enough that Katsuya didn't hear him; he didn't want a repeat of what happened to Kaiba.

"Good morning Anzu." Mokuba yawned as he gave Honda his trench coat back, rubbing the sleepiness out of his stormy blue eyes.

"Where's Mai? Isn't she with you?" Ryou asked, shaking debris from his sweater.

Anzu shook her head "She said she had to go," she explained, then produced a note "and to give you this note, Yugi."

Yugi unfolded it and read it aloud "I owe you eight starchips. See you around -Mai."

"Kiss those chips goodbye." Honda said, leaning over Yugi.

"I don't know." Yugi replied, stuffing the note into his pocket "Maybe we really can trust Mai."

"And if not, we're still the team supreme, right?" Katsuya said from where he was sitting; he had successfully gotten the twins changed, and into clean clothes. Their clothes were second-hand and warn, much like their fathers own.

"Right." The group, minus a grumpy Mokuba, replied in unison.

* * *

They wandered aimlessly, this time it seemed they were mostly by themselves; most of the other duelists must have been wiped out by then, much the chagrin of Yugi and Katsuya who were itching for a duel.

Eventually, they got tired of walking around and coming across no one, so they decided to take a rest in a clearing; Katsuya used this chance to go to a small waterfall and stream up ahead to make sure the twins got a decent wash, and Bakura and Ryuzaki decided to join him.

"Why do you keep hiding Axel's hair?" Ryuzaki asked as he dried off a squealing and extremely displeased Axel after Katsuya had dunked him into the stream.

"Uhhh," Katsuya started, racking his brain for an answer as he dunked Rose into the stream, she started screaming at the cold water and he tried to scrub her off as quickly as possible with a hand towel "the brown hair reminds of... " ' _Kaiba'_ "my mother."

"Ah?" He heard Bakura inquire; the holder of the Millennium Ring was downstream, using the stream to wash his long white hair, which got dirty a lot easier than most other hair colours. "Your mother?"

"My mother is divorced from my dad." Katsuya explained, drying his daughter off with a towel but she was still screaming at him "She uh, really doesn't like me."

"Ah, that sucks." Ryuzaki commented, getting Axel dressed as soon as he was dry. Katsuya shrugged in response, tossing a knit cap back at the Dino Duelist so he could cover Axel's head again.

Once they had packed up to leave and rejoin the rest of the group, they were ambushed by some big meat head, who grabbed Ryuzaki and took him hostage, saying he wasn't going to let him go unless if Bakura and Katsuya followed him, which they did not wanting Ryuzaki to get hurt.

They were lead to some dark, creepy cave where there was apparently an arena; besides a short creepy dude waiting there, there was a scrawny redhead, and a last guy who looked like a biker. They kept trying to egg Katsuya into a duel when he noticed that the biker dude was wearing a stars and stripes bandanna, and spoke very poor Japanese with a very _recognizable_ accent.

"I think this guys American." Katsuya whispered to his two companions.

"That's Keith Howard." Ryuzaki whispered back "I recognize him from a recent intercontinental tournament; he went up against Pegasus in New York, but lost after Pegasus put a kid in the duel with written instructions on how to beat him."

"Geeze, beating someone is one thing, but humiliating them in front of everyone too?" Katsuya shook his head "Here, take the twins, let me talk to this guy in our language."

The twins safe with Ryuzaki, Katsuya approached the group of four, looking specifically at Keith " _Hey, dude,_ " he said in English to Keith, pointing at him; Keith immediately perked up at the use of his native language " _what's this about? If you wanted to duel, you could have just asked._ "

" _You can speak English?_ " Keith seemed legitimately giddy at this revelation, standing up and walking over to the younger blond. Keith's three bozo's also looked confused; it was evident they didn't speak English.

Katsuya nodded " _I'm half American._ " he explained, something which pleased the man as he'd hoped.

"What's he doing?" Ryuzaki whispered to Bakura.

"You don't understand this because you haven't been outside of Japan, but when you're a foreigner in a different country you get excited when you meet someone of the same or similar background as you." Bakura explained quietly.

"Can't _you_ speak English though? How come you're not talking to Keith too?" Ryuzaki asked, bouncing the twins in his arms, though they continued to whine.

"American's hate the British."

"...But why? Aren't American's just descendants of British people?"

"Ryuzaki, if you try to tell an American, Australian, or New Zealander that they're just _Diet British,_ they will be very upset at you."

By the time Yugi and the others found them, Katsuya was in the middle of a duel with Keith - this one being a more friendly duel than the one that had originally been intended. Bakura had to explain to them that Katsuya basically _charmed_ his way out of an ambush.

During the duel, Katsuya managed to talk Keith down from his frustration; the guy was upset that Pegasus had humiliated him so badly on live TV, going against the rules and using a kid just to rub salt in the wound when the alternative was to just beat him normally. While Katsuya didn't appreciate that Keith had planned to trap him and make him duel one of his cronies, he could still empathize with the American's wounded pride.

Katsuya managed to win that Duel much to the surprise of everyone - but Keith didn't even seem mad about it, and gave up some, but not all, of his star chips without a fight, and leaving the cave with his flunkies, but not before telling Katsuya to make sure he made it to the castle so they could duel again.

When the group exited the cave, they spent _hours_ trying to find last minute duels so Yugi and Katsuya could get their last starchips, but it seemed they must have been the last people left on the island because they didn't come across a single Duelist.

"I guess those Eliminators did their job a little too well." Yugi had said as he plopped himself onto a tree stump; his friends nodded in unison as they all sat down in the field to rest their tired feet.

"How are we supposed to get to the castle if we can't win more starchips?" Katsuya asked, frustrated.

Mokuba finally spoke up, sounding bashful "Actually… I think I have enough starchips for you both to have ten."

"What!?" Yugi gasped "But that guard threw them all into the water!"

"Those were the starchips that belonged to that _one guy,_ " Mokuba explained, then sheepishly rubbed the back of his head "He wasn't the… only one I robbed."

"That's still stealing! It wouldn't be right." Anzu huffed, looking indignantly at Yugi and Katsuya.

"I mean… those duelists he stole from are all long gone by now," Honda reminded her "we can't give them back their starchips now, there's no good in just letting them go to waste."

Eventually they decided that if they didn't find more duelists by the end of the day, they would use the ones Mokuba had stolen. And they did go the extra mile in searching for duelists too, _several_ extra miles in fact.

By the time sunset came it was evident they were the only ones left, and conceded to Mokuba's offer. They didn't feel too great about it, but it wasn't like they didn't _try_.

"Are you okay, kid?" Katsuya asked Mokuba as the younger Kaiba clung to his jacket from behind, he seemed to be getting more and more anxious as they approached the castle.

"Pegasus held me captive there..." Mokuba reminded him, fear shining in his wide, innocent eyes. "What if he gets me again?"

"He won't get you while you're with us," Katsuya tried to reassure, then looked to his friends "right, guys?"

"We'll make sure you're safe, Mokuba." Yugi agreed, smiling at the younger boy. Mokuba nodded, but he didn't seem relieved.

"Do you think Kaiba got to Pegasus yet?" Ryuzaki asked.

"Ryuzaki!" Anzu snapped, smacking him over the head "Don't be insensitive!" At first, Ryuzaki didn't quite get the point, until the girl motioned to Mokuba, who had gone even more despondent at the mention of his brother.

Mokuba was close to panic when the castle came to view, so Honda offered to carry him on his back so he could hide against his shoulder and not look at it; which the little guy readily agreed to.

They met up with Mai and Keith along the way; Mai having long since gathered enough starchips, Keith explained that when it was evident there were no more duelists, he cronies actually agreed to relinquish their starchips to him of their own volition, since they didn't see themselves beating their boss in a duel.

The guard with the faux hawk, Kemo, only wanted to let Yugi, Katsuya, Mai, and Keith through since they were the only duelists with ten starchips in the group, but Keith shoved him away far enough to get everyone inside before the door closed.

When they entered, they were shocked to see Pegasus and Kaiba already in the middle of a duel.

Kaiba was in a rage, and Pegasus was just toying with the teen, but the negative energy between the two business men was almost corporeal with its intensity, and it sent the twins into an absolute crying fit. Katsuya tried his best to calm them down, but it quickly became clear that they were not going to settle while in the dueling arena, so regretfully he had to excuse himself after a few minutes; he tried bringing Mokuba with him, to spare the boy from watching Kaiba get throttled, but he flat out refused to leave his brothers side in his time of need, not when he was dueling for their company that they had worked so hard for.

He had one of the guards take him to his allotted room.

It was no surprise to him to hear from Yugi that night, that Kaiba had lost the duel, and by extension his soul to Pegasus. They had taken away his shell of a body, and it took the combined efforts of Ryuzaki, Honda and Ryou to keep Mokuba back from running off either after Pegasus, or after his brothers soulless body.

And… Katsuya honestly felt bad.

He'd spent so much time and energy resenting Kaiba, and he still wasn't going to let the egomaniac near Rose nor Axel, but that didn't mean he _wanted_ his soul sealed away into a Duel Monsters card.

Pegasus had afterwards raised the stakes to Yugi, saying that if he beat him he could get back not just his grandfather's soul, but also Kaiba's soul and company. The pressure on the tri-haired teen must have been _intense._

By the time Katsuya got the twins calmed, and himself showered, and into a clean set of clothes for the first time since they got to that god forsaken Island, Mokuba entered the room, downtrodden and just barely putting one foot in front of the other as he stumbled over to the bed.

"Hey kid..." Katsuya began gently; he patted the spot next to him on the foot of the bed, where Mokuba promptly dumped himself face-first into the duvet. "Yugi… told me what happened."

Axel and Rose looked over curiously at their (unknowing) uncle from the head of the bed; Rose had just recently learned how to sit herself up like her brother could, even if she could only stay up with support of her arms unlike Axel.

"He took him away." Mokuba whimpered; Katsuya began rubbing his back. The kid went slack eventually, with his face still buried into the duvet Katsuya guessed he must have passed out.

" _To."_ Rose babbled, reaching towards Katsuya, but she flopped onto her belly instead from her poor balance.

Katsuya couldn't help a chuckle "You'll get it eventually." He promised, picking her up; he tried picking up his son as well but a whine from the baby told him he was fine on his own.

There was a knock at his door, he supposed it must have been Honda coming to get him for dinner. "Come in." Katsuya called softly to not wake Mokuba, he was surprised when Keith walked in instead.

"Your _dweeb_ friend told me to grab you." Keith said gruffly, walking over; the amount of emphasis he put on the word must have meant he just recently learned it. "Dinner's soon."

Katsuya rubbed his tongue against the roof of his mouth; English always made his mouth feel weird " _You're fine here."_ He said in English.

Keith nodded and sat down at the chair adjacent to the bed, taking off his sunglasses and sparing Mokuba a glance " _Kid okay_?" He had also switched to English.

Katsuya shook his head, Keith nodded.

" _Pegasus is ruthless_ ," Keith told him, his somber blue gaze sliding to the floor " _I don't know why he's doing all of this… but whatever it is, he's sparing nothing and no one_."

Katsuya nodded, heart racing with worry for Yugi and The Puzzle Spirit, who seemed to be Pegasus's biggest target now that Kaiba was out of the way. Would he really keep his word and release those souls he had stolen?

Was there really going to be a money prize?

Rose' muttering brought him back out of her thoughts "You're talkative today, aren't you?" He asked his daughter fondly, kissing the top of her blonde head.

" _I think you're the first single dad I've seen."_ Keith remarked as he watched the younger Duelist interact with the baby." _-You are a single dad aren't you?"_ Katsuya nodded in response " _Are you going to teach them English too?"_

" _Maybe later down the line. I just want to focus on Japanese right now… Axel isn't picking up talking like his sister, yet."_ He explained.

Keith paused for a second " _You gave birth to these kids, didn't you?"_ He suddenly asked; Katsuya's jaw dropped and before he could defend himself Keith continued " _You don't have to try to lie to me, I don't hate fags."_

 _"-Then maybe shouldn't use that word."_ Katsuya warned him. Dealing with slurs in one language was bad enough.

Keith shrugged " _If you insist - I'm from a small rural town, you see, and a lot of the girls I went to High School with ended up getting pregnant as soon as they graduated. Here's the thing though - with every pregnancy, usually it's a guy who gets them pregnant. But they all ended up single mothers, no father in the picture."_

" _What does that have to do with me, though?"_ Katsuya asked, morbidly curious.

Axel began reaching out; Keith looked to Katsuya first, who nodded, before reaching out to the baby and letting him grab his much larger hand with both of his own, making the boy squeak happily. " _Any guy attached to a pregnancy without commitment to the girl, always ends up running off. If they do stick around, it's only in part or as the mother allows. I've never seen a male teen parent, let alone one as dedicated as you. I've heard of someone when I moved to New York… but it was all guys who got pregnant. Is that you, too?"_ He asked, flexing his fingers to make Axel laugh.

Katsuya looked down to the ground, contemplating being picked apart so easily by some adult he just met.

" _You don't have to tell me."_ Keith assured " _It's all your business… do they know, though? The other parent, about them?"_ Keith pulled his hand away from Axel's grasp when the boy tried to gnaw on it, making the baby pout and whine to no avail.

Katsuya shook his head.

" _What were they like?"_ Keiths tone had gone really soft.

"... _Reminded me of a bottle of Sprite."_ Katsuya answered vaguely, but seriously. Keith chortled at his response.

" _You should get some dinner."_ Keith reminded him, crossing his arms expectantly " _Don't worry about Kaiba's kid brother, though, I'll look after him."_ He must have read the reluctant look on the teens face.

" _I'll be right back."_ The younger Duelist promised, gathering up both the twins before walking out of the room towards the dining hall.

His friends were all waiting for him at the Dining Hall, Yugi and Anzu had the manners to wait for him to join him before they began eating, but Ryuzaki, Honda and Bakura were already on their second to third plate after starving in the woods for days.

Katsuya sat the twins on each knee as he ate with a similar starved vigor to most of his friends; he saw Mai was barely interested in the food, probably because she didn't go hungry like them during the tournament.

It was told to them over dinner that aside from the star chips, they also needed one of two playoff entry cards to enter the finals; Glory of the King's Hand, and Glory of the King's Opposite Hand. These cards had come with the invitation to Duelist Kingdom, and anyone without them were disqualified. The cards also provided unique prizes, the three million yen prize was given with the Glory of the King's Hand card, while the Opposite Hand card allows the player to challenge Pegasus for the Championship title.

This made Katsuya's heart drop; he hadn't been invited at all, so he didn't have those cards.

Also, there was a tiny eyeball in their soup, which was hollow and contained a letter randomly assigned to them; with Keith absent, Ryuzaki volunteered to draw for him. Once they all had their letters, a computer randomly shuffled the letters to match them up.

Yugi and Mai were paired up to duel, and so were Katsuya and Keith. He would have been excited to face Keith again, if it weren't for the fact that it didn't matter because he didn't have either of the King's Hand cards.

So he did what he always did (when the opportunity was there) and drowned his sorrows in food, even drinking the entire eyeball soup. The twins weren't content being held at this point, so he allowed them to sit on the table in front of him. Rose was looking around the room curiously; Axel was being distracted by Ryuzaki playing peekaboo with him.

He was still sulking even when Yugi came up to remind him to get sleep for the next day - Katsuya tried telling him there was no point, but instead his friend gave him the Glory of the King's Hand card; reminding him that he didn't care about the money, all he wanted was to face Pegasus; and besides, if both of them had either card, it doubled their chances of winning the entire thing anyways.

Touched, Katsuya took the card, promising he'd give it his all the next day.

When he returned to his room Keith was still keeping vigil over Mokuba - in a way at least, he had fallen asleep waiting, but that was fine. Rousing the older duelist from his sleep, Katsuya relayed to him the message, and to his surprise Keith became flustered; as it turned out, _he_ also didn't have either of those cards.

Katsuya briefly wondered to himself if Keith also wasn't invited, before telling him the same thing Yugi told him; technically they didn't need both cards, so he could always ask Mai for one of hers.

Once Keith had left, rushing out of the room to find the woman, Katsuya set the twins down and dimmed the lights; then looked back at the bed with Mokuba still passed out there. It was queen sized, it could fit all four of them thankfully, if a little snug. He moved Mokuba to the wall side of the bed, and luckily didn't wake him doing so.

He laid down on the other side of the bed, placing the twins between him and Mokuba so they wouldn't roll off of the bed. Axel was drowsy, and settled easily, but Rose was wide awake.

"Come on Rose, can't you sleep for me?" He asked with a sigh, picking her up; most of the time, when they slept, they slept in either of his arms, so she probably just wasn't used to not doing so. She snuggled against his chest, and the warm feeling of love and pride washed over him. He looked over to Mokuba; with a pang, he realized that his older brother would never experience this feeling. At least, not with Axel and Rose. "Time for sleep, come on; dad's tired."

"To _,_ to, to." She babbled; a little shaky, but also very close to the Japanese word for dad. So far, she seemed to be the only one talking. Her brother still only made vague noises, but his motor skills were better, he was close to crawling in fact, when Rose still had trouble sitting up on her own. "To!"

"Yes, yes I'm here." Katsuya mumbled tiredly, tucking the blankets around them all, and resting down. "I'm here, and I'm really tired, just relax down baby."

For a second, she seemed relaxed.

Then she took a big fistful of his hair and tugged it while continuing to babble. He sighed; the nerves in his head had been killed off long ago from her and her brother continually grabbing at his hair. "Of course you're not going to relax, are you..?" As if to answer him, she started trying to eat the hair she had grabbed.

* * *

The semi-finals went down surprisingly normal; only duelists were allowed on the arena floor, so Honda, Anzu, Ryzaki, Bakura and the twins were watching them from the balcony.

Katsuya didn't know what Keith did to get the card from Mai, but he must have as he was able to duel him the next day. The duel between them was much different from their first; they had a better understanding of each others decks and strategic style after dueling the first time, so their duel this time was much more intense. The intensity made it much more fun though, and the two blondes were of a very similar fiery disposition, increasing the fervidity even more.

Even when he'd lost, Keith Howard still had an ardent grin on his face. " _Hey dweeb_ ," Keith called, in English, pointing to Katsuya as his own life points hit zero " _you're something else, ya know? Face me again when you're big and strong, ya hear?_ " Only Bakura and Pegasus could understand their conversation, but most of them could tell that even if he didn't win the duel, Keith managed to regain the confidence he had lost to Pegasus back in New York City.

The Puzzle Spirits duel with Mai wasn't as exciting, but both duelists were fired up; Mai was eager to show that even with how short the tournament was, she had grown as a duelist and as a person, and the Puzzle Spirit was no push-over even with his hosts kind heart. Yugi ended up winning that duel.

That left the duel Katsuya had been both excited for and dreading; him and Yugi.

_To be continued…_

* * *

**Canon events that have changed:**

-Kaiba never lost his deck to Pegasus's goons, so the fake Kaiba thing never happened. (What, he bothered to save his prototype duel disk system, but left his deck behind? The one with the only three Blue Eyes White Dragons left in existence?)

-Kaiba and Katsuya don't duel each other, Katsuya instead confronts Kaiba over trying to drag Mokuba away from the safety of the group. Ultimately (after getting his head slammed a lot) Kaiba agrees to let Mokuba stay with Yugi's group, decided to take on Pegasus by himself to win back Kaiba Corp.

-Instead of just Katsuya getting captured by Keith's group, it's him, Ryuzaki and Bakura, with Ryuzaki being used as bait/hostage.

-Katsuya duels Keith instead of Bonz, and the two ended up befriending each other after Keith finally unloads his resentment towards Pegasus and lack of confidence onto him.

-Since Keith doesn't trap them in the cave, they don't face the Paradox Brothers

-Yugi and Katsuya get the rest of their chips from Mokuba, who had actually stolen quite a lot of them.

-Kaiba doesn't try to kill himself, so Yugi and Yami don't get into conflict with each other yet.

-Mai and Anzu don't duel each other.

-Keith and Mai greet them at the castle, and it's Keith who gets them through Kemo.

-Since he didn't rob Katsuya, Keith acquires The Glory of the Kings Hand through Mai instead. Through what means, the world may never know.

-Keith loses graciously, and does not pull a gun out of Pegasus this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors note: Kaiba called his own spawn mongrel bastards. Oh, the irony. At least he didn't look too closely at them.
> 
> You know, I always wanted Katsuya to kick the crap out of Kaiba at least once, the fact he never did in the original series is still something that disappoints me. Don't get me wrong, in a traditional fight Kaiba would definitely beat him, but Jonouchi is a former street fighter, and most likely doesn't believe in clean fighting.
> 
> Keith seems to have taken Mai's place in being closer to Katsuya, but no they do not like each other romantically or sexually. Keith is straight and probably just sees a lot of himself in Katsuya since they're both passionate, crude punks. And though Katsuya is bi in this, he probably prefers effeminate men over hypermasculine ones.
> 
> When speaking in a language besides Japanese, characters will speak with italics. Keith, Katsuya, Ryou and Pegasus all speak English. For anyone who is American/Australian/New Zealander (like the beta reader lol), I do not really think you're just 'Diet British'.
> 
> Speaking of language, when Rose says "To", and it states she's close to the word for dad, she's trying to say "To-san" or "Oto-san", which is how Katsuya refers to himself when talking to his children.
> 
> A few chapters back a reviewer (Wavesover) was wondering who was going to find out Jonouchi's secret first. And I told them it was going to be Bandit Keith. And they thought I was kidding.


	6. Don't Drag Seto Kaiba's Lifeless Body Around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CH.5 Recap:
> 
> Kaiba: You're a third rate duelist with a fourth rate deck. All of your monsters are mid-tier at best, and absolute trash at worst. You have the strategic capabilities of a monkey with brain damage.
> 
> Katsuya:
> 
> Kaiba: You're a worthless deadbeat. Your father is a loser, and your own mother hates you. When you grow up you'll amount to nothing but a drain on society, and just repeat the cycle of drinking, gambling addiction, and neglect. If your sister could see you, she would be repulsed.
> 
> Katsuya:
> 
> Kaiba: Your kids are ugly.
> 
> Katsuya: ̴̛̝̳̘͇Ś̷̠̲̰͖Ȯ̴̦͛͘͝ ̵̻̂̈́Y̶̜͖̭͗͗̅O̷̠̰̦͐̀̕Ú̵̥̩̞̄̍̇ ̶̠̍̓H̷̢͚͍̞́̇A̴̡̭̋͜V̷̺͚̖̇̔̋Ȩ̸͕̋́ ̶̘̹̓́C̶̫̍H̴̡̧̛̖̩͛͒Ō̸͇͇̌̏Ṣ̷͛̍Ē̴̘͉̺͗̆Ň̶̞̏͠ ̷͚̻͎̦͑D̵̮͔͒̌̓Ḛ̸̆Ä̴̦̪̦̲̽̑͛T̶̫̪̤͒̀͗́ͅH̸̫̤̰̾.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternative CH.5 Recap:
> 
> Keith: So these are your kids?
> 
> Katsuya: Yeah…
> 
> Keith: Do they need a stepdad?
> 
> Katsuya: What?
> 
> Keith: What?

**Chapter 6: Don't Drag Seto Kaiba's Lifeless Body Around**

Much like the Linkin Park song 'In The End' from their magnum opus album _Hybrid Theory;_ Katsuya tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end…

The Puzzle Spirit still beat him.

The match had been close, but ended in The Spirit's favor due to a miscalculation on his part; when he used his Time Wizard to turn Baby Dragon into Thousand Dragon, he did not realize that there would be a similar effect on Dark Magician, who also grew into a stronger form called The Dark Sage, who had the ability to allow The Spirit to use a magic card during _both_ of their turns; he then used Makiu, The Magical Mist, which smothered Thousand Dragons Attack.

And being able to use a magic card during his own turn, The Spirit used Monster Reborn to bring back Black Skull Dragon from the graveyard, then ordered the monster to take out Thousand Dragon and wipe out Katsuya's remaining life points,

He'd hoped that he would face the _actual_ Yugi instead of The Spirit, because it was Yugi he had a stronger bond with, but both of them were good Duelists so he supposed at the end of the day, it didn't matter. What _did_ matter, however, was that now there was no way he could fund Shizuka's surgery.

Katsuya tried to give The Glory of The Kings hand to Yugi, but his friend refused, repeating that he did not care about the money, he only wanted to save his grandfather and Kaiba.

The touching gesture from his friend caused him to cry, which then caused the _twins_ to cry because they couldn't distinguish good crying from bad crying, all they knew was that their dad was crying and they didn't like that. Ryuzaki and Mokuba squabbled amongst themselves as they tried to calm the twins down, because Katsuya was too emotional to function at the moment.

Katsuya covered his eyes with his sleeve as he tried to wipe away the rapidly streaming tears "Yugi," he croaked "when I lost the duel, I lost all hope of saving my sister. But now, Yugi… Thank you." He hiccuped slightly as he struggled to regain composure "Now go and take down Pegasus."

"Jonouchiii they won't stop!" Mokuba called from between Honda and Ryuzaki, referring to the still hysterical babies.

"Just give their dear old dad a minute, okay?" Katsuya hiccuped again, drying out his eyes. He knew that once he himself calmed down they would follow suit, he just needed a moment to sort out his feelings.

* * *

There was a brief interlude after Katsuya and Yugi's duel, Yugi used this time to prepare his deck and mentally prepare himself for his upcoming duel between him and Pegasus. The Yugi-tachi, Bakura, Ryuzaki and Mokuba were all clustered in the observation area above the dueling arena, waiting for him to emerge.

Mai and Keith had already been escorted off of the Island not long after they lost their duels, but not before leaving their contact information with Yugi and Katsuya, respectively. Despite their losing in the semi-finals to two teenaged amateurs, they both seemed in surprisingly high spirits.

Katsuya was facing the doors that Yugi would soon emerge from, sitting on the ground with his back against the railing; Rose was in his lap, and Axel was clumsily crawling around, not quite but close to adept at it.

"Come on Rose, can't you just try to crawl like your brother?" Katsuya tried to urge his daughter, placing her on the ground on her knees and gloved hands, holding her waist so she could be upright.

" _To!_ " She whined as he let go; for a second she managed to stay up, but when she moved one hand up to try to crawl she tumbled back onto her belly.

"Is it safe to put them on the floor like that? I don't think I've seen anyone mop here even once." Bakura remarked, both arms over the railing.

"They're fine, they got gloves." Katsuya dismissed.

"They keep putting their gloved hands in their mouth." Anzu reminded him, they both watched as Katsuya helped Rose sit up, and once she had herself supported she immediately stuck her hand into her slobbery mouth.

"A little dirt never hurt." Katsuya shrugged. "It builds character."

Anzu squished her nose "Boys." She muttered.

"No, he's right. Babies aren't always as fragile as we think they are." Ryuzaki told her, she simply rolled her eyes.

Mokuba crouched down next to Katsuya, his face spelled out anxiety. "Do you really think Yugi will win? And save my brother and his company?" He asked in a harsh whisper.

Katsuya frowned, but reached over, and casually ruffled Mokuba's already wild hair "Don't worry," he began to console "Yugi and the Puzzle Spirit are great duelists with strong conviction. Yugi said he'll save his grandpa and your brother, and that's exactly what he's gonna do. Creator of Duel Monsters or not."

At that moment, the automatic doors opened, and revealed Yugi, who was taken aback to see the greeting party in front of him.

"Huh?" The tri-haired teen said, tilting his head as he approached his friends and allies.

"Surprise." Anzu said, clasping her hands together.

"Guys," Yugi began as he strode over "what are you doing-?"

Honda intercepted his question "Hey, Yugi, we all wanted to wish you well." The brunets words made Yugi's trademark soft smile break across his softened face.

"You guys are the best." Yugi said.

"Looks like you finally made it." Katsuya said, picking up both of the twins, despite Axel's one-syllable protests, as he lifted himself from the floor to a standing position. "You're going all the way, buddy."

"And once it's over, we'll get your grandpa home-" Anzu began, only for Mokuba to shrilly cut in.

"And my brother!" The raven-haired boy reminded them all, and Yugi nodded with a slightly more earnest expression.

"Hey, you got this man." Ryuzaki added, returning the more uplifting mood from seconds earlier "You show that deranged psychopath what for, okay?"

Yugi nodded as Pegasus's right hand man, Croquet, called for their attention at the referee corner of the dueling arena "The time has come!" The older man announced loudly enough for his voice to echo. He then put his hands behind his back in a parade-rest position "Would Yugi Motou, the challenger, please enter the duel ring? Pegasus-shachou awaits you."

Katsuya turned back to Yugi, who hadn't transformed into the Puzzle Spirit, but held a very similar serious expression "Go get him, Yugi." Katsuya encouraged. It was at that moment, the puzzle began to glow, and Yugi switched places with the Spirit of his Millenium Puzzle.

"He looks so determined!" Ryuzaki commented as they watched The Puzzle Spirit walk towards the dueling platform. The Dino Duelists, although having been with them for most of Duelist Kingdom, still had a hard time with the concept of two Yugi's. And he was still convinced that the incident with Dark Bakura was just a dream.

Katsuya couldn't blame him, sometimes he thought it was strange too. "Yugi!" He whooped from the observation area "Take him down!"

"We know you can!" Honda cheered.

"Put that slime bucket in his place, once and for all!" Mokuba growled, his intensity unfortunately was dampened by his shrill voice, and cute stature.

"The challenger has entered the stadium." Croquet announced as the Puzzle Spirit stopped behind the dueling table on his side of the platform. "And now, for your dueling pleasure, Castle Pegasus is proud to present; the creator of Duel Monsters, and all of it's wondrous cards… The undefeated, undisputed ruler of Duelist Kingdom-"

"Can they kiss this man's ass any harder?" Katsuya mumbled to Ryuzaki as Croquet announced Pegasus's full name, and the man himself made a full appearance followed by two guards. Ryuzaki made a noise in the back of his throat, but otherwise didn't say anything.

"And now, let the duel begin!"

* * *

Pegasus, surprisingly, agreed to all of the terms if Yugi won; he would release Sugoroku and Kaiba's soul, and relinquish his hold on Kaiba Corp. He did note, however, it was a strange demand as Yugi should hate Seto Kaiba for what he's done against him.

Mokuba clung a little closer to Katsuya at the comment, Katsuya tried to be as unbiased as possible, reminding himself again that just because Kaiba was an asshole, it didn't mean he deserved to lose his immortal soul, and also his company. They did make a promise to Mokuba after all.

Pegasus agreeing to Yugi's terms, seemingly nonchalant, made the group suspicious; it seemed like he had been planning to face Yugi in the final match all along. For what, they didn't know.

As they drew their first cards, Anzu led the group to the upper galleries so they could better watch the duel. Although they didn't miss Croquet informing the Puzzle Spirit that if he won the duel there was no limit to what he could demand as a prize from Pegasus; he could take the Millennium Eye, the entire island, or even Industrial Illusions as a prize if he so desired. The Puzzle Spirit reaffirmed that he simply wanted the souls and Kaiba Corp to be released from Pegasus's hold.

What they did miss, however, was that Honda split from the group when they went upstairs. They figured he had just gone to the bathroom or something.

Pegasus then reminded the Puzzle Spirit that if he lost, he would lose his own soul.

The Puzzle Spirit remained undaunted.

The duel was intense from the start, Pegasus seemed to have a counter for every one of the Puzzle Spirits strategies; when they were beginning to get more suspicious of the Duel Monsters Creator, the man revealed that he could actually read thoughts thanks to the power of his Millennium Eye. This was a nightmare for the Puzzle Spirit, and the Yugi-tachi; they knew he could beat anyone in a _fair_ duel, but how fair was a duel where your opponent could see your every move?

They barely even noticed how Croquet was acting strange, but they couldn't hear whatever he was frantically saying in his walkie-talkie. Then _Bakura_ walked off, saying he was going to check on Honda, and the others allowed him to go without anymore questions, as their friend had been missing for some time to just be a simple trip to the bathroom.

Then a few turns later Pegasus used Toon World, and turned his monsters into Toon Monsters, which made them seemingly impossible to destroy, and then used a permanent trap that turns the Puzzle Spirits defense monsters into unmoving statues.

The Puzzle Spirit was starting to lose some of his composure around this time; Anzu reminded him that while the Millennium Eye had magic powers, so did the Millennium Puzzle; this seemed the give the Spirit pause for a moment, but it was this pep talk that inspired Yugi and the Puzzle Spirit to start trading places each turn, to prevent Pegasus from seeing their moves because he could only read one mind at a time. While this seemed to turn the tides of the duel, it was still intense.

Yugi and The Puzzle Spirit turned the duel into their favor when using a trap combo, destroyed Toon World, and stopped an attack from one of Pegasus's monsters, saving the Dark Magician, and their life points, while simultaneously ending Pegasus's toon monster advantage.

This may have won them the battle, but not quite the war; in an act of self-preservation Pegasus revealed he had been after the Millennium Puzzle all along, and then sent the duel straight to the Shadow Realm. They weren't entirely sure what was going on with the duel anymore, all they knew was the Yugi was in danger and they couldn't support him where he was.

"How can we help Yugi if we can't even see him?" Anzu asked, as they helplessly watched the shadows choke out the dueling arena.

"Oh yeah, because just standing here and cheering sometimes is _really_ helpful." Ryuzaki muttered where he was, crossing his arms even as Katsuya gave him a stern look. Unfortunately, the Dino Duelist didn't quite grasp the concept of friendship like the rest of the group.

Before Anzu could reply, someone else spoke up.

"Hey! How about a hand!" They heard an exhausted-sounding Honda holler; they all turned to see the brunet trudging in with an unconscious Bakura over one shoulder, and Kaiba's soulless body over the other.

"Honda!" Anzu gasped in shock; Katsuya said nothing as his mouth went dry.

"Big brother!" Mokuba near-screamed as he rushed over, gripping the clothes of his brothers limp form.

"You wouldn't believe it." Honda panted as he trudged over to the nearby wall and set both unconscious bodies down, Mokuba immediately sitting Kaiba up best he could and clasping one of his limp hands in both of his. "I've had an adventure and a half today."

"What happened to Bakura?" Ryuzaki asked, confused.

"That evil spirit took over Bakura again..." Honda began to explain; Ryuzaki's eyes immediately widened.

"Th-That wasn't a dream?!" The brunet nearly shrieked, Katsuya silently patted his head to calm him down. His eyes were glued on the Kaiba brothers, his chest panging with some kind of weird mixture of emotions. Sympathy? Pity? He didn't want to go anywhere near Kaiba's soulless body, especially with the twins in tow, but he didn't want to leave a vulnerable, emotional Mokuba by himself.

Honda finally noticed the gathering of dark clouds around the duel arena "What's going on here?" He asked.

"You first." Katsuya finally spoke up, breaking his eyes away from the Kaiba brothers. Though, Rose oddly kept her own eyes focused on the two.

"I freed Kaiba, but then Bakura tried to grab him." Honda began.

Another pang in his chest; concern? Urgh, being concerned about _Kaiba_ was the last thing he wanted. 'Father' of his kids or not. "What did he want with Kaiba?" Realizing how emotionally invested he must have sounded, he quickly added "Details, man."

"He wanted Kaiba for his new host body." Hearing the gasps from the rest of the group, he said "Don't worry, I handled it; but that's history. What's the deal with the indoor thunderstorm?" He pointed to the dueling arena.

"We're not sure..." Ryuzaki answered honestly, as he knelt down and placed the back of his hand against Bakura's forehead.

"These two should be alright for now..." Honda said, then looked back to his friends "Let's go down and check it out." He added, referring to the duel.

Katsuya looked to Mokuba, who was still holding his brothers hand tight between his own "Mokuba-" he began, to no avail.

"No!" Mokuba cut him off immediately "I'm not leaving my brother again!"

Katsuya was torn, he wanted to go with Anzu and Honda, and he especially didn't want to be around Kaiba's soulless husk with his children, but he didn't want to leave Mokuba alone, especially with how high value a target he and his brother were.

He looked down to Ryuzaki, who had put a wet cloth over Bakura's forehead "Ryuzaki," he started, the Dino Duelist looked up at him curiously "can you go downstairs with Anzu and Honda to investigate? I need to stay up here and make sure these three are safe."

Ryuzaki blinked in confusion, but stood up and shrugged "If that's really what you want, bro." He said, he looked to Anzu and Honda, and the trio ran downstairs.

"Don't worry kid..." Katsuya said quietly to Mokuba as he turned towards them "you and your brother, and Bakura, are going to be just fine." Mokuba nodded, not taking his eyes off of his brother.

Rose started babbling just then "To, To, To-" Her pronunciation of the Japanese word for dad was getting better. He looked down at her to encourage her, but stopped when he noticed something.

She was looking right at _Kaiba_.

' _No, no, no!_ ' He thought frantically, turning away and holding both her and Axel close to his chest so they wouldn't look at neither Kaiba nor Mokuba 'I'm _your dad, not Kaiba!'_

He gasped aloud when he felt a strange feeling practically lance through his chest. And it wasn't panic over the twins, it was something else, something that had to do with Yugi. Something had happened to Yugi, and it was devastating, he could feel it, and he didn't doubt that Anzu and Honda could also feel it.

The twins were whimpering - could they feel it too?

It was like, even though he couldn't _see_ Yugi, he could still feel Yugi, as if he were standing right next to him; at least, he _did_ , until suddenly he didn't feel him at all, as if he vanished off the face of the Earth. Yugi was hurt… Or worse.

Katsuya, wide-eyed, looked over the railing down at the dark clouds clustering the duel arena, wondering what the hell his friend could be going through within it's shadowy concealment.

He knew where he was, he couldn't reach out to Yugi in any tangible way, but maybe, maybe he could reach out to Yugi and the Puzzle Spirit in a different way. Their bond was stronger than the Shadow Realm, he just knew. Katsuya looked to the hand currently holding Axel; the same hand that Anzu had drawn a symbol onto the night Sugoroku was kidnapped, and focused on it with all of his concentration.

"All of us are here for you, Yugi." He said aloud, in the direction of the cloud, knowing the Pegasus was still using cheating tactics against his friend ' _Not anymore, Pegasus,'_ he thought ' _not so long as we're helping out buddy out. Get out of his mind, and stay out!_ '

He breathed in, he couldn't see it, but he could somehow _feel_ like he, Anzu, and Honda were all together helping Yugi and the Puzzle Spirit somehow. He could even hear their voices somehow, not quite in his head; maybe in the soul?

' _Thank you.'_ Was the Puzzle Spirits voice ' _Together, we can stand strong against him._ '

Then there was Anzu ' _Pegasus, you just don't get it.'_

Katsuya 'spoke' up ' _You think your eye makes all the difference..._ '

Honda finished his sentiment ' _But you're wrong; friends do._ '

* * *

The feeling of Yugi's absence lifted, and with it so did the dark clouds around the duel arena. Katsuya visibly grinned as from above, he watched Yugi exit the rapidly dissipating fog. Katsuya desperately wanted to be down there, but he knew that he couldn't leave Mokuba.

"Yugi won!" He whooped; he looked back at the raven-haired child, whose face lit up right away.

"T-Then that means Seto will wake up soon!" Mokuba's face broke into a grin as he grabbed both of his siblings' hands. For now, Kaiba remained unconscious and presumably soulless.

There was a groan; Katsuya turned to see Bakura beginning to stir. "Bakura?" Katsuya asked, wearily, as the other boy's eyes began to open.

"Hello… Hey..." Bakura said with a yawn as he got back onto his feet; Katsuya noted that this must have been the normal Bakura, not the evil Ring Spirit.

"Hey there," Katsuya greeted "feeling back to normal?"

"What?" Bakura echoed "Back to normal? Have I not been normal, Jonouchi?"

"Honda said something about your Millennium Ring making you act like a real asshole again."

"Oh my..." He placed a pale hand over his chest and felt around, his eyebrows quickly knitting in confusion, presumably over his missing ring.

"I think Honda might have gotten rid of it..." Katsuya muttered, twitching his head as Axel was now bent on exploring his ear with his pudgy, slobbery fingers. At this, he made an extra mental note to make sure to trim the twins nails later today.

"Hey Jonouchi!" He heard from the floor below; he turned back to his friend group who was looking up expectantly at him, it had been Anzu who was calling "Did you see where Pegasus ran off?" Katsuya blinked and looked over; with a gasp, he saw that Pegasus's side of the ring was vacated.

"No!" He called back, swearing under his breath. "Let's go and find that creep Pegasus!"

"Don't go..." He heard Mokuba behind him, in a voice so small it tugged at his _oh so paternal_ heartstrings. Damn that kid, damn himself for being so weak.

"I'll watch Mokuba and Kaiba!" He called down; he nodded at Bakura who then jogged downstairs trailing the rest of the group, who had already ran out to find Pegasus.

Sighing, Jonouchi slowly made his way over to the Kaiba brothers, keeping up his defense slightly so the twins wouldn't get too close.

"Anything yet?" He asked tentatively.

Mokuba shook his head, still holding both of Kaiba's hands.

There were a few moments of silence, before Katsuya decided to break the awkward tension "Do uh, you think it's okay for me to be this close to him? We didn't exactly… get off on the right foot." He underplayed, remembering exactly how he'd slammed Kaiba's head against the ground a mere few days before.

"He might hold a grudge..." Mokuba admitted "But, once he wakes up, he'll just be glad that this is all over."

Axel was suddenly getting really squirmy, meaning he definitely no longer was going to tolerate being held. Hesitantly, Katsuya knelt down and allowed his son to crawl on the floor; he was good at crawling now, but he was still slow at it. The baby boy looked at Kaiba, and suddenly started crawling towards him with more speed than he usually had.

"Axel no-" Katsuya tried to pull his son back, but was distracted momentarily when Kaiba suddenly grunted and twitched, but didn't open his eyes, shocking both Katsuya and Mokuba. Was it nothing…? Or did his soul just return to its body?

" _Wa?_ " Axel babbled, a little less vague sound as usual, grabbing Kaiba's pant leg as if trying to use his leg as support to climb. Rose was watching her twin curiously.

"Seto?" Mokuba asked tentatively, noticing his brothers change in breathing pattern.

"Axel, come here, leave Kaiba alone." Katsuya scolded gently, reaching over and picking the boy up by cupping his free hand under his stomach, carefully bringing him back. The baby brunet was clearly displeased by this, whining at his dad who wasn't going to be swayed this time.

Kaiba twitched a little more, but remained unconscious. It made Katsuya wonder if souls just clicked back in place right away like a puzzle piece, or they needed to wiggle a little to fit back in the body, like putting on a pair of old jeans.

Mokuba reached over and placed a hand on his brothers shoulder, shaking him slightly "Seto?" He repeated "Can you hear me, big brother?" The elder Kaiba's eyelids began to twitch and a long, low groan escaped from between his chapped lips, and he seemed to struggle in place, even as Mokuba perked up.

Katsuya kept his mouth in a tight line as he held the twins close to him, still kneeling in front of Kaiba. Rose was still mumbling as she watched the brothers intently. They seemed a bit jittery now; but kids were always really perceptive, maybe they could sense souls in a way he couldn't fathom. "It'll be fine." He consoled, pecking the top of his daughters head, as she hadn't stopped staring at Kaiba even once, which made him really nervous; did all babies feel some kind of connection to their biological parents or something?!

Kaiba's lips began moving " _Sabah al khair..._ " He muttered, Katsuya tilted his head; that was a different language, wasn't it? Not one that he recognized, anyways.

" _Sabah al noor._ " Mokuba replied without missing a beat, pulling his brothers hands closer to himself " _Sabah al noor,_ Seto." His accent had changed, but only slightly, and Katsuya guessed that his pronunciation was shakier than his elder brothers.

Slowly, Kaiba's eyelids shakily opened, revealing cobalt eyes underneath, now glittering with awareness, and they met with Katsuya's own as soon as they opened. Katsuya was entranced, freezing in place from the eye contact he'd never had so directly with the CEO before, at least, not this close and with a clear mind.

Katsuya felt like he'd been struck, but not in a bad way, but enough to make him literally catch his breath. He'd thought Kaiba was stunning when they first met, but that was when the other boy had been disguised; now that he was seeing him for what he was, he could see how captivating he truly was.

For a moment, he could have sworn Kaiba was as frozen in place from eye contact as he was.

That split-second moment ended when Mokuba practically threw himself at his brother. "Big brother!" He shrieked, burying his face into the older Kaiba's chest, sobbing happily. Kaiba blinked slowly as he gathered his bearings, and wrapped his arms around Mokuba to return the embrace. "You're back!"

Kaiba's usually impassive face softened, and he smiled; a smile that reached his eyes even. This was the first Katsuya had ever seen him smile in any capacity that wasn't mocking or cruel.

 _LUB-DUB_ went Katsuya's heart. Damn, no wonder he was so willing to screw with him that fateful night when they were fifteen. Snapping out of his trance, Katsuya shook his head to knock those intrusive thoughts right out. He was glad that guy got his soul back, but he was _still_ an asshole no matter how conventionally attractive he was.

"Welcome back." Katsuya offered the brunet, trying to be as gruff as possible. Kaiba side-glanced at him momentarily, but continued to hold his brother. "Your company is safe too, Pegasus relinquished it as part of the prize of Yugi winning."

"Yugi won? Against Pegasus?" Kaiba asked, sounding surprised, and offended.

Katsuya felt a twitch of pride in his buddy at that offended tone from Kaiba; the brunet must have been livid that Yugi beat Pegasus when he couldn't. The brunets face did sour a bit at this development with Yugi, even with his brother still sobbing happily into his chest.

The twins were making noises among themselves, still watching the Kaiba brothers. Somewhat concerned with this, Katsuya stood up from his kneeling position and took a step back. "Can you stand?" He asked Kaiba, his tone was stringent. The memory of Kaiba calling the twins bastards was still fresh in his mind.

"Hey Jonouchi!" He heard the familiar voice of Bakura from under them "Are you still up there?" He looked over the railing to see that the white-haired teen was back, but separated from the main group, who seemed to trail in moments later.

"Yes, I'm still with Mokuba. Kaiba's coming around." He told them; he glanced slightly back over his shoulder to see Kaiba shakily standing back up, using the nearby wall and Mokuba, who was holding his hand, as support.

His friends ran in "Is he okay?" Anzu asked, as the group came to a halt.

"Yeah, he's fine." Katsuya replied, looking to his friends and not at Kaiba. He could practically feel a glare burning through him from the CEO, not appreciating being spoken for.

"Great," Bakura walking up, his hands behind his back "so your soul is back in your body?" The Englishman asked, and although the look on his face was gentle enough… his smile didn't seem to match his eyes. Katsuya chose to ignore this.

"Did anyone ever tell you lot to not talk about someone while they're in the room?" Kaiba snided, a trademark sneer back on his face.

"Oh good, he's back to normal. That's a relief." Anzu commented with snark, Katsuya chuckled at this and Kaiba seemed to struggle to not dignify that with a glare.

Yugi rushed in suddenly, seemingly having been far behind the group. Maybe it was his short legs. "So, he's really alright?" He panted, grinding to a halt a few yards from Kaiba.

"I'm fine." Kaiba almost growled, taking some tentative steps with Mokuba's help.

"Who would've believed Pegasus would keep his word?" Honda said, glancing down slightly at Ryuzaki, who was noticeable both uncomfortable and starstruck seeing Seto Kaiba up close.

"Yeah, go figure." The dino duelist muttered.

Yugi looked up at Kaiba, who glanced down back at the shorter teen with less disdain than he did the others "So, how're you doing Kaiba? Feeling up to getting off this island?"

Before Kaiba could answer, a sudden gruff voice interrupted them "Yugi? Jonouchi?"

"Croquet." Yugi steelily replied, as the entire group turned to Pegasus's right-hand man.

The older man wasted no time "Due to his illness, Pegasus-shachou will be unable to attend." Katsuya wanted to make an off-hand remark about Pegasus being a coward, but he kept it to himself "All prizes are still to be awarded. Yugi has already received his agreed-upon reward of two freed souls." He explained "But, in addition, there's this." He presented a card with an angelic looking woman on it.

"What is it?" Yugi asked.

"It's a card called 'The Ties of Friendship'. It's the only one of it's kind, hand-painted by Pegasus himself. I was instructed to deliver it personally to you." Croquet explained, allowing Yugi to take it from it's display box.

"Lame." Katsuya muttered to Ryuzaki, who shrugged.

"You are now officially the King of Games." Croquet announced, and the group was visibly excited at this. Well, except for Kaiba, who scowled again. The gray-haired agent reached into the inside of his blazer, and pulled out an envelope "This contains a check for the prize money, won by Yugi in his duel with Jonouchi Katsuya."

"Serves him right..." Katsuya heard Kaiba mutter, and then seemingly a grunt; probably from Mokuba elbowing him a little.

Katsuya felt himself getting lighter as his best friend turned to him, looking up with a bright smile. He knew what Yugi was going to say, but still braced himself. "It's all yours, Jonouchi. Just like I promised."

Croquet quirked a brow at this, but gave the envelope to Katsuya nonetheless. When the envelope was in his hand, he felt as though a huge weight was taken off his soldiers. Shizuka… she would get to see again, she would get to see him and their father and the twins and…

"All for your sisters operation, Jonouchi?" Anzu said with an all-knowing grin.

"We've been apart for so long..." Katsuya began, his voice thickening with emotion but he didn't care. Kaiba was oddly silent "But now I can save her from going blind."

"That's great, Jonouchi." Ryuzaki offered.

"You bet it is, bro."

"Now," Croquet cleared his voice, sweeping his sunglass clad gaze across the entire group "we'd like you all to leave." He nodded respectfully, if stiffly. He about-faced, and walked away.

"Yugi!" Anzu almost exclaimed suddenly "I just realized, if Kaiba's soul is back-"

"Yeah," Yugi confirmed "it should mean my grandpas soul is returning too! I can't wait to get him out of that hospital."

"Little brother," Kaiba said quietly, as he and Mokuba started to shift away from the main group, Katsuya still watched them out of the corner of his eye "what do you say, ready for me to take you back home, where we both belong?"

"You bet." Mokuba chirped, keeping a strong hold on his brothers hand even though it was clear he could walk unsupported now.

"Yugi," Kaiba addressed, his tone becoming flat again "thank you for keeping my brother safe. He means everything to me." He seemed to very _deliberately_ putting emphasis on Yugi, but glanced momentarily at Katsuya with pettiness in his eyes, as if to rub it in there was no way he was going to acknowledge it was actually Katsuya who had kept Mokuba safe.

Yugi seemed a bit perplexed, but replied politely "How could _we_ do anything else?" He replied.

"And I am grateful, but" Kaiba's tone became cold once again "because of our circumstances, our last duel was not really conclusive."

"Yes, you're right." Yugi confirmed, he sounded serious.

"One day we will meet in the arena again, to decide which one of us is truly the better duelist. And one of us will walk away with pride-"

' _I hope neither of you two will grow up to monologue like that_ ' Katsuya thought amusingly, looking down at his twins who were still fussing in his arms.

"Come on Mokuba, let's go." Kaiba turned "My helicopters waiting." He began walking, his brother still clasping his hand.

"All right! We're going home!" Mokuba cheered, he looked back over his shoulder and beamed brightly at the group, but his eyes fixated on Katsuya "Thanks Jonouchi! I hope I can see you again!" He yelped a tiny bit as his brother seemed to tug him away at that comment.

Watching the two brothers walk away into the sunset, Katsuya was caught off guard by his daughter " _Tou-san._ " She said, it was shaky but it was clear what she had said.

He should have felt pride in his daughters first words, but he felt nothing but panic at the moment. Because when she had said that… her eyes were absolutely transfixed on _Kaiba._

"Y-Yeah that's me! Good job Rose!" He nervously said, showering the baby girl in praise as he turned her to face him, making sure her fussing face was buried in his shoulder and not looking at Kaiba at all.

"Hey I just thought of something," Ryuzaki suddenly said to the group, they all turned to him "all of the boats have left. So how are we supposed to get off of this Island?"

The realization hit Honda hard as he suddenly spazzed out with a gasp.

"Hey, Kaiba, wait for us!" Honda and Ryuzaki shouted in unison, running after the CEO.

"And us, too!" Yugi said as he ran behind.

Katsuya looked down at Anzu, bemused. While he didn't want to be trapped on the island, he wasn't looking forward to a plane ride with Kaiba "Are babies this young even allowed to go on helicopters?" He asked, as he and Anzu walked behind the other three, Bakura seemed to lag behind even further, keeping to himself.

"I don't know Jonouchi, are babies supposed to be smuggled onto islands? Does your dad even know you brought them?" Anzu sassily asked him, hugging his arm softly as they followed their friends.

"Oh, he knows by now..." The twins giggled against him in unison, as if they could sense their fathers upcoming parental scolding at the hands of their no doubt peeved off grandfather.

_To be continued...?_

* * *

**Canon events that changed from the dub;**

-Kaiba's soulless body is the stand-in for Mokuba, since Mokuba's soul was never taken.

-Katsuya stays behind rather than join his friends on the search for Pegasus, Ryuzaki takes his place even if the scene isn't shown

-The Kaiba brothers reunion takes place above the duel arena rather than outside, with only Jonouchi and the twins present.

-Jonouchi did not interrupt Croquet to accuse Pegasus of skipping out on the prizes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: Yeah so the 4Kids friendship ex machina is still a thing. A bit cheesy, I know.
> 
> So some of you may be wondering a few things; is this the end? Well, no, this is just the end of the Duelist Kingdom Arc. Once I'm done writing the Battle City Arc, I'm gonna update the chapter content list and update weekly from there. The reason it's 'completed' for now, is because a season/arc constitutes a drop-off point for the readers. In a way, you did finish the story. If you want to leave the story now, you can.
> 
> Some of the commenters have wondered if Pegasus was going to dig into Jonouchi's head to find out who Axel and Rose's other parent is, and now you are disappointed that he didn't. And there's a specific reason for this - Pegasus had literally no reason to do that.
> 
> The whole tournament was a ploy for him to take Kaiba Corp, and Yugi's Puzzle, so he could revive his wife. He didn't give a single shit about anyone else. He didn't care about Jonouchi at all, let alone the two infants he brought with him. He seemingly didn't care that Jonouchi entered his tournament illegally. He probably didn't even know Axel and Rose were Jonouchi's children; he might have just assumed that they were his siblings like most other people do.
> 
> Again, while this story itself revolved around Single Father Jonouchi, the whole story of Yugioh isn't about him, it's about Yugi and the Pharaoh. Most villain's will only care about Yugi, and probably Kaiba. As far as they are concerned, Jonouchi is just an accessory/side piece to Yugi. The only acceptations to this might be Marik or Valon.
> 
> *Ahem* Anyways.
> 
> I don't know how many of you reading this have experience with babies or small children, but they are a lot smarter and more perceptive than we give them credit for. Their lack of experience with literally anything should not be mistaken for stupidity. That being said, this is also a fanfiction based on an anime, I try to be as realistic as possible with their development, but them being hinted to having or feeling a connection to their biological father, Kaiba, is kinda just me playing around.
> 
> Kaiba was speaking Arabic when he started to wake up, he basically said 'Good morning' while Mokuba basically responded 'morning of light' or 'a bright morning to you'. I was inspired by serena jones 585 (dot in place of space) on and their story "Puzzle Pieces" where Kaiba and Mokuba's father is Arabic. So much like Jonouchi and his sister, they are also biracial, and multicultural. Chapters more focused on Kaiba might cover that a little more in depth later down the line.
> 
> So Rose is the first one to say her first word clearing, it being 'Tou-san' or 'father'. She's been trying to do so for most of duelist kingdom. However, to Jonouchi's horror she was looking at Kaiba when she said this.
> 
> In both the sub and dub, the boats are gone and they hitch a ride with Kaiba off of duelist kingdom island. This wasn't shown in the anime, so it isn't going to be shown in this chapter which is already long enough. However, I can tell you that Jonouchi was swarmed not only by his twins, but Ryuzaki and Mokuba were squabbling over his attention as well. And he ignored Kaiba, and spent a good portion of it making sure that Axel and Rose were not looking at Kaiba either.


End file.
